4A Baseball: Pueblo County Secures First State Championship

COLORADO SPRINGS —This was the excellence of Pueblo County’s execution.

All season, Pueblo County’s methodical death-by-a-thousand-base-hits approach baffled teams and Saturday at Erdle Field at the United States Air Force Academy, that paradigm earned the Hornets the golden trophy.

Pueblo County defeated Falcon 9-4 in the 4A state championship game and secured the school’s first-ever baseball championship. The Hornets’ win comes two years after finishing as runners-up in 2024.

“This is something we’ve been working at for a very long time,” Pueblo County coach Matt Eades said. “The community showed up and they showed up early. Pueblo is a prideful town and it’s a pleasure to have them behind us and get this done.”

Pueblo County, the five seed, trailed 1-0 after the Falcons scored in the first. But Pueblo County swiftly erased that deficit and built a 3-1 lead after the second inning. The Hornets then shuttered the Falcons’ offense until the seventh and watched their lead balloon.

After a run in the fourth made it 4-1 Hornets, a five-spot in the sixth put the game out of reach for Falcon and gave Pueblo County a 9-1 advantage. Nick Hernandez led the Hornets with two hits and three RBIs and all but one County batter finished the day with at least one hit.

While Blake Swift didn’t earn a hit for the Hornets, he ensured the Falcons couldn’t reach base either. Through six innings, the Hornets’ ace allowed just three hits, one run and Swift struck out six of the No. 3-seed’s hitters.

“This is a big park and you just have to know where you’re at,” Swift said. “You have to throw strikes and get ahead and make sure the bottom of the line up isn’t on when the top of the line up comes on.”

As the Hornets held the Falcons in check, Pueblo County compiled nine hits with five of those being singles. The Hornets have buttered their bread in similar fashion all season.

Just three players — Sol Montoya, Jacob Gonzales and Dillon Masset — registered home runs this season and Hernandez was the only Hornet, with at least 10 games played, who batted over .400 (.432). But the Hornets amassed 221 hits in 29 games with 156 RBIs, 56 more than the national average.

“These are grit-and-grind dudes who don’t like to make outs,” Eades said. “They do whatever they have to do to get on base and it has been a fun ride and I’m blessed to be their coach.”

This is the second game in a row the Hornets slowed Falcon’s offense. In last week’s semifinals, the Hornets won 11-6 and held the Falcons, who averaged over 10 runs per game, to just one run until a seventh-inning rally attempt. On Saturday, the Falcons had a similar spark, but the Hornets extinguished any hope of a comeback.

“One through nine for those guys crush the ball,” Eades said. “They have a great offense and we’re fortunate to end up on the right side of things. It’s been two years of Blake Swift doing Blake Swift things. His calm demeanor is unshakeable and I wasn’t surprised to see him or any of our kids end the day as champions.”