4A Baseball: Golden Bounces Back to Earn State Championship
By Tracy Renck/CHSAANow
Photo: James Nokes/ColoradoPreps.com
After losing to Cheyenne Mountain 5-2 in the morning, the previously unbeaten Demons didn’t unravel.
Instead, they regrouped to defeat the Red-Tailed Hawks 5-1 in a Class 4A winner-take-all state championship game at Erdle Field at the United States Air Force Academy in the afternoon.
“When I inherited the program 10 years ago, I knew what we had so we could rebuild it to where it needed to be,” Golden coach Jackie McBroom said. “Today was a rough day, an emotional day, and I’m so happy where we ended up. I’m so happy for the seniors. The seniors have been to the state tournament four times, so this was a perfect way for them to end it.
“We have been here, so the stage isn’t too big for them and it motivated them. They were tired of coming and saying they made it to the state tournament. They were motivated all offseason to come here and win the whole thing.”
Golden (26-5) won its second baseball state title in school history. Its lone title – before Saturday – came in 2003 when it beat Mountain View 6-3 in the Class 4A championship.
Golden’s state championship march was full of drama. The Demons posted a 4-1 record during their title run and played Cheyenne Mountain three times. Golden beat CM 7-4 in the opening game of the tourney for both teams and then played the Red-Tailed Hawks twice on Saturday.
Also included in those four Golden wins was an improbable 12-11 semifinal victory over Windsor in a game the Demons trailed 10-5 at one point.
Cheyenne Mountain (22-9-1) was aiming to win its seventh state baseball crown and its first since 2011. CM’s other baseball crowns came in 1958, 1959, 1960, 1962, 2009 and 2011.
Cheyenne Mountain made it a one-game, winner-takes-all for state supremacy by outlasting Golden 5-2 in eight innings to start the day. The Red-Tailed Hawks’ hero was Nate Glad, who had a two-run single up the middle to break a scoreless tie in the eighth inning.
“The thing about Cheyenne Mountain is you have to beat them, they are not going to make mistakes,” McBroom said. “I knew this was going to be a battle and I was happy to know we were coming into this with a 3-0 (record). If we had an off game we had the opportunity to bounce back, and we did.”
Golden jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning of the finale on an RBI single by Jaydon Stroup.
Cheyenne Mountain tied the game at 1-all in the third thanks to a run-scoring hit by Glad.
In the bottom of the third the Demons answered.
Anthony Boucher lashed a line-drive single to left and Luca Casali, who led off the inning with a single, scored from first when Cheyenne’s left fielder mishandled the ball. That gave Golden the 2-1 edge.
That’s where the score remained until the fifth, when the Demons broke things open.
Casali drew a one-out walk and scored moments later on a single by Boucher. Then, Liam Leffert smacked a triple to right field to score two more runs to give the Demons a 5-1 edge.
“We focused on the next game, and it was huge for us to get three runs there,” McBroom said. “You can play a lot more comfortably when you have a four-run lead instead of a one-run lead.”
A lead the Demons wouldn’t relinquish thanks to a stellar performance on the mound by Taden Svendsen. The senior southpaw fired 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball, scattering eight hits and walking just one batter. Austin Bittner came on in relief to get the final two outs and secure the victory.
Then the celebration began.
