Golden baseball powers past D’Evelyn for 11th straight victory

GOLDEN — Sophomore Austin Bittner was one out away from a complete-game victory Tuesday at Golden High School.

The Demons’ ace had just recorded his 14th strikeout to get the second out in the top of the seventh inning, but his pitch-count was at 109. Golden coach Jackie McBroom decided to put junior Jonah Jefferson on the mound to finish out the eventual 11-4 victory for Golden over rival D’Evelyn.

“It is always tricky,” Coach McBroom said of taking out Bittner when he could have faced one final batter with where is pitch-count was at. “The thing that you have to like about him is he is a competitor. He isn’t the guy who wants to take himself out of the game in the sixth inning because he is at 96 pitches. I pretty much have to take the ball away from him.”

Tuesday was the longest outing for the lefty sophomore. Bittner has a 7-1 record with a 2.90 ERA. His lone loss was to Eaton back in mid-March.

“I always want to finish it, but you have to protect the arm,” Bittner said. “I was fine with getting taken out. Jonah got the last out and we won the game. That is all that matters.”

Bittner gave up seven hits — six singles and a double — while striking out a season-high 14 batters and walking just two batters. 

“He is young and just keeps developing,” Golden junior centerfield/pitcher Dylan Paulson said of Bittner. “I feel like he is getting better each outing. I’m not getting any balls in centerfield, so it’s easy for me.”

D’Evelyn (11-7 record, 2-2 in Class 4A/3A Jeffco League) stayed with Golden (16-2, 4-0) through four innings with the Demons holding a slim 4-3 lead. However, the Demons poured it on offensively in the later innings batting around in the line-up in both the fifth and six to plate seven runs to take an 11-3 lead.

“The fact of the matter is it’s a league game. You can throw the records out when you play D’Evelyn,” Coach McBroom said of facing the Jaguars, who actually is the last team to hand Golden a league loss back on May 1, 2024. “We continued to have good at-bats, stay the course and continue to add runs.”

Paulson, Bittner and junior Caycen Mead all had RBI hits in the 3-run fifth inning. Paulson had a big 3-run double in the bottom of the sixth inning to pretty much seal the victory.

“It felt good. I got a good piece,” Paulson said of his 3-run double in the sixth inning that pushed Golden’s lead to 10-3. “Every year we know it’s going to be a dogfight against (D’Evelyn). It was good to get a little insurance.”

D’Evelyn freshman Jake Seda — pitched a complete-game, 1-hit shutout victory in his last outing against Green Mountain — was solid through the first four innings, but the first four Demon batters in the fifth inning reached base and D’Evelyn coach Dan Porreco went to his bullpen. Junior Jack Lee took the hill with no outs in the bottom of the fifth inning.

“If I was an opposing coach I think the thing that is tough is we continue to put the pressure on you inning one through seven,” Coach McBroom said. “Even if you have a pitcher that is doing great or things aren’t going our way, we are going to go away. We are going to continue to add runs. That’s a plus and asset for us. They swing the bats well.”

Seniors Gunnar Hetrick and Brody McBroom with had a pair of RBIs as Golden scored double-digit runs for the seventh time in the Demons’ past eight games.

Golden is looking to post its 12th straight victory when the Demons host Evergreen (14-3, 4-0) at 4 p.m. Thursday, at Golden High School. The Cougars and Demons are tied atop the conference standings. However, Mother Nature might have something to say about things. Some weather reports are predicting over a half-inch of rain on Thursday in the Denver Metro area.

“It’s Colorado so you never know what the weather is going to be. Just flip a coin,” Coach McBroom said. “Our goal is to be ready to play baseball on Thursday. We hope to get the game in. We are looking forward to playing Evergreen.”

D’Evelyn is scheduled to be at Dakota Ridge in Thursday as the Jaguars hope to end their 2-game losing streak.