Golden baseball’s 2025 squad now on par with historic 2003 state championship team
US AIR FORCE ACADEMY — Twenty-two years ago, Mark Melancon celebrated on the mound at All-City Field as Golden High School won the school’s first state baseball title.
Fast-forward to Saturday afternoon at Erdle Field at the Air Force Academy. Senior shortstop Jaydon Stroup fielded a bouncing ball and fired it to senior Luca Casali for the final out, giving the Demons their second Class 4A baseball state championship with a 5-1 victory against Cheyenne Mountain.
“I don’t have a lot of words right now. Less than usual,” the soft-spoken Stroup said moments after fielding the final out and throwing it over to Casali at first base. “It felt good to win the game, make the last play. It just feels really good.”
The 2003 state championship team had to defeated Mountain View twice on a Saturday in Denver to claim the state title. Melancon — who went on to a 14-year MLB career as a relief pitcher and four-time All-Star, along with a two-time NL saves leader — got the win on the mound in the first game against Mountain View. His cousin, Luke Roberts took the victory on the hill in the second game before Melancon closed out the game.
This time around, it was senior left Taden Svendsen going six and a third innings to pick up the victory. Svendsen allowed just one run while scattering eight hits.
“It feels amazing knowing we’ll have a 2025 state championship banner hung up on the walls of Golden High School,” Svendsen said. “To take this home is great for the community.”
Svendsen and fellow senior Sawyer Brinkman would have likely shouldered the pitching load if the Demons were able to force a winner-take-all 4A title game two years ago. However, Severance edged Golden 1-0 to send the Demons home with the 4A runner-up trophy in 2023.
“I always worry about it no matter who the player is. It could be a senior. It could be a freshman. How are they respond being on this stage? This is a big deal,” Golden coach Jackie McBroom said. “Taden did a phenomenal job. He came out and pitched his game. He didn’t let the environment dictate how he threw.”
The environment got a little uncomfortable when Cheyenne Mountain won its fifth straight elimination game in the state tournament with a 5-2 extra-inning victory against Golden.
“I looked at my watch and just said, ‘It’s over now. It was time to move forward,’” Coach McBroom said about the Demons refocusing after the extra-inning loss where Golden stranded eight runners on base in the final three innings of the 5-2 loss.
The morning ended the Demons’ 20-game winning streak and set up a winner-take-all second game, but it didn’t derail Golden’s goal to win the state title.
“The focus in between games was just to flush it,” Stroup said about the extra-inning loss to Cheyenne Mountain. “A lot of underclassmen made some really big plays and got some really big hits.”
Casali reached and scored during all three of his at-bats. A 3-run bottom of the fifth inning gave the Demons (26-4 record) a 5-1 cushion. Sophomore Anthony Boucher had a big RBI single to right field that scored Casali to put Golden up 3-1. Sophomore Liam Leffert delivered the dagger with a 2-run triple to push the lead to 5-1.
“It was all just reset,” said Casali, who was 0-for-5 from the plate in the first game before going 2-for-2 with a walk and three runs scored in game two. “This was a fresh game. We knew we were the better game. Let’s build our confidence early and attack early. That was our whole mentality.”
Coach McBroom went to freshman lefty Austin Bittner to finish the game with one out in the top of the seventh inning. It was only Bittner’s fifth appearance in a varsity game this season.
“Not at all,” Bittner said if he imaged closing out the state championship game. “I was defintely trying to work toward it the entire season, starting on JV and then swinging up to varsity for a couple of games. I was working hard to get to the varsity level and pitch.”
Winning the state title will put the 2025 team in the same breath of the 2003 squad.
“First time in a long time and only the second time in 150 years,” Stroup said matching the historic 2003 state championship team. “To be one of the two Golden team to have done this feels really special.”
It also caps off a remarkable four-year run for Coach McBroom’s squads at the state tournament.
“People can look at it that we got the monkey off our back now,” Coach McBroom said of the Demons winning their first state title after multiple trips to the 8-team double-eliminate state tournament. “Ultimately, there aren’t many teams from Jeffco that have been down here four years in a row. I don’t see it as a failure of getting down here and not winning it. We’ve had a lot of success in these last for years.”
