Arvada West baseball ripping through 5A Jeffco League

ARVADA — Beau Friesen did something on the baseball field Wednesday that he had never done before.

The power-hitting lefty hit his first grand slam playing baseball at any level. Friesen crushed an inside pitch from Columbine lefty Jake Dougherty with the bases loaded in the bottom of the third inning.

“It was really cool. I’m happy,” Friesen said of his first grand slam that helped propel A-West to a 14-4 home victory in six innings. “I’m hitting good right now. I’ve got one more to match Tate.”

Friesen has the goal of at least hitting nine dingers this season. Former teammate  Tate Deal — 2025 graduate — had nine home runs a season ago to lead the Wildcats. 

A-West’s right field and closer on the mound didn’t have a single home run a season ago in 64 at-bats. He has hit five home runs in the Wildcats’ eight league games, including hitting home runs on back-to-back days against Columbine.

“He is on fire,” A-West coach Danny Vais said of Friesen. “He finds barrels all the time. He looks like a man up there and destroys the baseball.”

Columbine literally took the bat out of Friesen’s hands his first two at-bats. Friesen reached base on interference calls when Columbine catcher Sage Suazo reached for pitches and made contact with Friesen’s bat on swings.

“Beau does a great job of letting the ball get deep. He trusts in his strength,” Coach Vais said. “The way he was being pitched with left-on-left with a lot of breaking stuff inside he was able to get around on it.”

The blast by Friesen opened up a 10-4 lead for the Wildcats (16-3 record, 8-0 in Class 5A Jeffco League). Columbine (6-13, 0-8) had actually just put up three runs in the top of the third inning to cut A-West’s lead to 6-4.

The Rebels took advantage of three Wildcat errors in the third, an inning after Sal Dominguez ripped a hard line-drive RBI double off A-West starting pitcher Cooper Vais.

“I totally missed my spot on that one,” Vais said of the RBI double by Dominguez to score the Rebels’ first run. “It was supposed to be a fastball outside. I wasn’t staying through the ball and I threw a fastball right down the middle. That is what you expect facing a good hitter and a good team. That’s going to happen.”

Despite an 11-game losing streak the Rebels are on, Columbine had traffic on the bases in nearly every inning. Vais had six strikeouts after having nine Ks in each of his previous three outings.

“The last three years (Columbine) has put some great at-bats against me. They have done a great job of sticking to their plan,” Vais said. “Today they just stuck on my fastball outside, outside, outside. I had to switch it up.”

Vais pounded the inside of the zone and went to his curveball more starting in the fourth inning. He finished not allowing a run in the fourth, fifth or six innings. The junior gave up four hits in his eighth victory on the mound this season.

“Hats off to him (Columbine coach Lee Martin),” Coach Vais said of the Rebels giving the Wildcats a tough time early. “Every single time he seems to have a plan. His guys execute and I think that’s the sign of a great coach in my opinion.”

The adjustments A-West made eventually ended the game early with the 10-run mercy rule going into effect. Senior pinch-hitter Noah Porreco struck out swinging in the bottom of the sixth inning with junior Jeramiah Gonzales on third base, but the ball got past the Rebels’ catcher and Gonzales scored to end the game 14-4.

Senior Cameron Thornton had a nice day at the plate with three hits, including a 2-run single in the first inning. Senior Levi Lueck also had a pair of RBIs on his two hits for the Wildcats. 

A-West is on a 14-game winning streak and has a game lead over Chatfield (11-8, 7-1) and 2-game lead over Valor Christian (12-8, 8-2) in the conference standings.

“We still have to win four more games to win league,” Vais said of A-West attempting to successfully defend its conference title. “It’s not done yet.”

The Wildcats have two more 2-game series remaining before the postseason begins. A-West faces Valor on May 2 and 5 before closing the regular season with a 2-game set against Chatfield on May 7 and 9.

The second game against Columbine was originally schedule to be played Thursday, but with the impending weather coming in the game was moved up a day. Valor and Ralston Valley also moved up their game to Wednesday that the Eagles on 12-2.

“It definitely gives us a little longer of a break heading into the series with Valor,” Vais said of playing back-to-back days against Columbine. “We’ve got to focus on them. They have some good pitchers and are a good team.”

Columbine has its series bye coming up. The Rebels face Lakewood in their final 2-game league series May 7 and 9.