2A Baseball: Forge Christian Runs Away with State Title

PUEBLO – For an inning and a half, things were about as quiet on Hobbs Field as they were in the Osprey nest atop the center field light tower. About the same time, however, that Mr. Osprey came back to the nest with a freshly-plucked fish from Runyon Lake, action heated up on the ball field as well.

It’s worth noting that it was the lower half of the Forge Christian batting order that started off the deluge of scoring in the second inning, sending the No. 1 Fury to an eventual 11-0 victory over No. 6 Denver Christian for the 2A state baseball championship.

Fury pitcher Brock Wycoff helped his cause on the mound with a lead-off single in the bottom of second. Next up, Asher Garner sent pinch runner Ivan Murphy to second with a sacrifice bunt. One out and a runner in scoring position for Forge.

Next up in the order, Jonah Boykin lofted a high popup that fell safely to the grass in shallow right field, just beyond the reached of two Denver Christian fielders. A throw to the plate kept Murphy from scoring but enabled Boykin to advance to second.

As the Forge faithful leaned forward in their seats with anticipation, the dam broke.

Batting eighth in the order, second baseman Sam Buerck laid down a textbook bunt to the gap between pitcher and third. In the time in took to field the bunt and make a throw to first, Murphy crossed the plate for the first Fury run as Boykin advanced easily to third. The throw came too late to beat the speedy Buerck to first.

The Forge bats had produced the action to this point, but it was time for the Fury baserunning school to launch into session.

With Will Taylor at the plate, Buerck took off for second, drawing a throw from Thunder catcher James Lord. The throw just missed being in time to catch Buerck at second and left home plate wide open for Boykin to tally the second Fury run of the day.

“We knew the catcher was going to throw—he’s got a good arm,” explained Buerck. “The whole goal was to draw that throw so we could score him [Boykin] from third.”

Head coach Jim Polson added his perspective on the second inning double steal, “We start working on baserunning the first day of January. We know that our baserunning is going to set us apart from other teams, and it showed up today.”

Buerck would score from second moments later when a throw to first on a ground out went into the turf, providing Buerck just enough breathing space to reach home ahead of yet another Thunder throw.

By the end of the second inning, Forge Christian held a 3-0 it they would never relinquish. Meanwhile, Wycoff would allow only one hit, a single, through the remaining three innings of the contest. He was already in control on the mound long before the top of the third inning, but his confidence and tempo only increased with a three-run lead under his belt.

“It’s important for me to control the pace of the game, not allowing the hitter to control it,” said Wycoff. “I try to work fast and play my game.”

By the fourth and fifth innings, the balls were coming at the Thunder batters so fast the six batters Wycoff faced in the final two innings of the contest went down in order. Four grounded out, and two struck out. It was, without question, a game securely under Wycoff’s control.

If there’s an overarching story to Forge’s season and its state title game, it is that a team that can do serious damage with the bottom part of its batting order is a very tough team to beat.

Polson talked to that point after the game, “We coach up our 7/8/9. We coach them up, and we know they’re our bread and butter. They get on base, and our big hitters can drive them in.”

The only flaw in that theory is that the 7, 8, and 9 were doing a stand-up job of driving in everyone else on this day. A double by Boykin followed by a triple off the bat of Buerck, drove in two runs and capped a four-run bottom of the third for the Fury, crushing any hopes Denver Christian held of crawling back into the contest.

The 11-0 triumph is a first state title as Forge Christian. Faith Christian, the predecessor school for Forge Christian, won baseball state titles in 2007, 2011, and 2016, all in the 3A classification. Denver Christian came into the contest with hopes of extending its string of 2A state titles to three but was unable to keep the magic alive against a powerhouse Forge Christian team.