Golden baseball’s win streak reaches 40 against 4A Jeffco foes

GOLDEN — It has been 749 days since Golden’s baseball team loss on the diamond against another Class 4A Jeffco League team.

“It sounds good. I think the last time we lost was my freshman year,” Golden junior Jaydon Stroup said of the Demons’ remarkable winning streak against conference rivals. “It feels good to beat these Jeffco teams.”

D’Evelyn defeated Golden 6-2 on April 8, 2022. Since that loss, the Demons have reeled off 40 straight wins against 4A Jeffco squads in non-league and league games.

“It’s incredible. We just can’t lose,” Golden junior Taden Svendsen said after the Demons took a 7-1 home victory over Evergreen on Friday afternoon. “Our team has just been stacked the past three or four years. We’ve had many amazing players.”

It did take two days for Golden (16-1, 3-0 in 4A Jeffco) to extend the streak. The Demons and Cougars (8-8, 2-1) only got one inning in Thursday afternoon before the game was postponed after lightning delayed the game for around 90 minutes.

The decision was made to continue the game at 11 a.m. Friday to beat incoming weather and was possible because it was a non-contact day for Jeffco Public Schools students.

“We don’t want to get backed up,” Golden coach Jackie McBroom said of getting the league game in before weather moved in postponing the Demons’ home game Saturday, April 27, against D’Evelyn. “We are strong on the mound, but at the same time, we don’t want to play five baseball games in one week.”

Golden senior Braeden McCarroll and Svendsen were dominating on the mound against Evergreen. The duo combined for a 1-hitter. The Cougars’ lone run came in the top of the third inning on an RBI double by senior Jack Teska off of McCarroll, cutting the Demons’ lead to 2-1.

However, the Cougars couldn’t plate any runs after Svendsen took over in the mound when McCarroll neared the 60-pitch limit over two consecutive days pitching.

“Taden is one of our starters, but there are going to be times when we need him out of the bullpen too,” McBroom said. “It’s a different role. We try to help him adjust to that, so it was a good opportunity for him to work on it today.”

The lefty walked three and hit a batter in just over three inning of work, but also struck out seven while not allowing a hit. Evergreen threatened to score in the top of the seventh inning, but Svendsen struck out sophomore Brody March to end the game.

“I had full confidence going in there,” Svendsen said. “I was pretty dialed in during my bullpen.” 

Golden’s offense was efficient with 10 hits. Stroup led the way going 3-for-3 while scoring twice and knocking in the Demons’ final run in the bottom of the sixth inning with an RBI single. 

“We are going to hit a few home runs here and there, but that isn’t who we are,” McBroom said. “We’ve got to get 10 hits. Get timely hits. We need to execute when we need to execute. It wasn’t our best game (offensively), but we got hits when we needed them.”

Senior Jacob Dehm and sophomore Charlie Thompson both had a pair of RBIs in the Demons’ 11th straight victory. Thompson’s 2-run single in the bottom of the third inning was huge to push Golden’s lead to 5-1.

“We preach 2-out singles with guys in scoring position a lot,” McBroom said. “Charlie is a really good baseball player and is going to help us out a lot in the future. He has been struggling as of late. I was happy to see him fight through it and get a big hit in a big situation like that.”

Thompson was 0-for-13 before the big him.

“I was in the bullpen. I knew Charlie was up,” Svendsen said. “I heard a ping and I knew it was barreled. He needed that. It was at a perfect time.”

While Golden’s conference winning streak has now reached 40, it has been in danger a few times this season.

The Demons trailed Green Mountain 8-5 on Wednesday heading to the seventh inning, but Golden had a 7-run top of the 7th to eventually claim a 12-9 victory to keep the streak alive. Golden had a 1-run non-league game against Standley Lake and had to go extra innings versus rival D’Evelyn a few weeks ago.

“I’m glad we have that fight back,” Svendsen said referring to Demons lone loss this season at Pueblo Central back on March 30. “We are going to use it and need it a lot during the playoffs.”

Golden and Evergreen have six league games remaining that they will attempt to squeeze in before May 9.