Bear Creek baseball corrals Ralston Valley on the diamond

ARVADA — Bear Creek held on to get its biggest victory of the baseball season so far on Saturday at Ralston Valley High School’s Nate Jurney Field.

The Bears ended their 3-game losing streak with a 4-3 victory over Ralston Valley. Senior Jamin Patterson picked up the victory on the mound and junior Brandon Adams-Anders got the save recording the final two outs to prevent the Mustangs from completing a late-inning comeback attempt.

“It was just about trusting my team behind me. Trusting my defense,” said Patterson, who gave up three runs on five hits while throwing just over 100 pitches. “Getting the job done. Doing the best I could do.”

Ralston Valley (5-6, 1-1 in Class 5A Jeffco League) trailed the entire game, but had a golden opportunity to steal the win late. The Mustangs scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth inning thanks to three Bear Creek errors to cut the Bears’ lead to 4-2.

The Mustangs got within a run when junior Nico Benallo scampered home on a passed ball to make it a 1-run game. Ralston Valley had the tying run at third and winning run at second base with 1-out. Adams-Anders relieved Patterson on the hill and preceded to get a pop out to shortstop and a strikeout looking to end the game.

“I’ve been saying this for a while, anytime we have Jamin on the mound we have a chance to win,” Bear Creek coach Robert Mitchell said. “Honestly, it isn’t anything we did as coaches. It was the these guys came to practice yesterday. They knew they had to get it together and change.”

Ralston Valley dominated Bear Creek to the tune of 14-3 on Thursday at Bear Creek High School in both teams’ conference opener. With Patterson taking the hill and the Bears (3-8, 1-1) scoring three runs in the top of the first inning Saturday helped end Bear Creek’s losing streak. 

“That was great. That really set the tone for the game,” Patterson said of the Bears’ 3-run top of the first inning. “It really helped me out there too.”

Adams-Anders drove in the first run with an RBI single to score junior Matt Hegerle, who had doubled to lead off the game. A pair of Ralston Valley errors allowed two more runs to score in the inning.

“We weren’t as clean defensively as we would like to be,” Ralston Valley coach Brad Madden said. “It’s a young group. You are going to have some bumps in the road.”

Adams-Anders had a RBI sacrifice fly in the fourth inning to push the Bears’ lead to 4-0. Ralston Valley senior pitcher Grant Belcher gave up just two earned runs on seven hits during his four innings of work. 

Sophomore Jake Watts and junior Porter Peonio combined to pitch the final three innings for the Mustangs. The two were perfect out of the bullpen not allowing a hit or baserunner, but Ralston Valley’s offense just couldn’t overcome the early deficit.

“We had guys on a couple of different times and didn’t get the big hit where we could have scored a run here or there,” Madden said.

Ralston Valley ended up leaving 10 runners on base, eighth in scoring position. The Mustangs are a very young team. Madden started just one senior with Belcher getting the start on the mound Saturday. Three juniors and six sophomores rounded out the starting line-up for Ralston Valley.

“When you have five or six sophomores in the line-up some days they are going to be tuned in and great,” Madden said. “Some days, they are going to be sophomores. We had a really good week going 3-1, hopefully we can get back on the horse Tuesday and get after it.”

Ralston Valley’s next 2-game league series will come against Lakewood starting on the Tigers’ home field Tuesday, April 15.

Bear Creek faces league-leading Arvada West next week. The Bears are at the Wildcats’ on Tuesday.

“A-West definitely has some arms (pitchers) that we have to prepare for,” Mitchell said of the upcoming series against A-West (9-2-1, 2-0). “If pitching keeps on coming through I think we’ll have a shot. I’m looking forward to it, but it will be a tough series.”