Demon Dynasty: Golden baseball wins 6th straight conference title
LITTLETON — Golden junior Dylan Paulson made a pretty solid final argument for being the MVP for the Class 4A/3A Jeffco League on Saturday afternoon.
Paulson went 4-for-4 from the plate, including a leadoff home run in the regular-season finale for Golden on the road against Dakota Ridge. He also threw a complete-game victory on the mound giving up just one run on a pair of hits while striking out 10 batters in the Demons’ 11-1 win.
“Dylan is a guy who likes the big games and it showed today,” Golden coach Jackie McBroom said. “You get a home run to start the game and also he gets two strike outs on the mound in the bottom of the first inning. He sets the tone of the game.”
Paulson — .536 batting average, 45 hits, 36 RBIs and 40 runs scored — launched his sixth home run of the season to help himself out before he even took the mound.
“That was a little bit of a surprise,” Paulson said of his solo home run to start the game. “The wind was blowing a little in today. I think it might have stopped during my at-bat. It was great to start off the game with the lead without even taking the mound yet.”
Golden kept things going offensively with a 5-run top of the third inning to extend the lead to 6-0. Senior Brody McBroom, junior Caycen Mead and sophomore Austin Bittner all had RBIs as the Demons took command of the game.
Junior Anthony Boucher had a RBI double in the fourth inning to make it a 7-0 game before Dakota Ridge (12-10, 6-2 in league) could even muster up a hit off of Paulson.
“I definitely felt great. I hadn’t thrown since last Friday (May 1),” said Paulson, who threw a no-hitter against Evergreen in his last start. “I had a lot of rest and my arm felt great.”
Dakota Ridge senior Brady White ended the no-hit bid with a single in the bottom of the fourth inning. Senior William Maes ended the shutout with a solo home run with two outs in the fourth inning.
Paulson bounced back quickly retiring the Eagles in order in the bottom of the fifth inning. Golden put up a 4-run top of the sixth inning to give the Demons a 11-1 advantage. Paulson punched out his 10th hitter to end the game with the 10-run mercy rule after six innings for his sixth victory on the mound.
“I love catching him. He is a great leader on the team,” Mead said of Paulson. “Catching him is a dream. He hits his spots and he puts trust in me. It’s really a great chemistry between me and him.”
Team chemistry has equaled an incredible league run for the Demons. Golden’s win Saturday clinched the sixth straight 4A/3A Jeffco League title. Golden is the only Jeffco baseball team in any classification to win six straight league titles. Arvada West won five straight from 1992 to 1996.
“It’s crazy,” Coach McBroom said of the sixth straight league title. “You create the culture and then you create the environment. You point the guys in the right direction and we’ve been lucky enough that these guys understand what the expectation is. The older guys get the younger guys on board. You have to have that to keep on winning year-in and year-out.”
There has been no hangover after Golden won the 4A state championship a year ago and graduated eight seniors.
“It’s hard to win,” Paulson said of the sixth straight league title where the Demons have a 56-3 league mark over the past sixth seasons. “You just have to come out here and handle business. I think we’ve done that this year. The bats are really surprising me this year. We are a really good hitting team.”
Golden (21-2, 9-0) outscored its league opponents 104-6 and won 8-of-9 conference games by 10 runs or more. Despite the domination, Dakota Ridge still had the opportunity to steal the league title away from the Demons.
A win by the Eagles over Golden would have put Dakota Ridge in the driver’s seat and coupled with a win Tuesday, May 12, over Pomona would have given Dakota Ridge the league title.
“It was a little bigger,” Coach McBroom said. “I was coaching over at third base (coach’s box) I was thinking to myself that I was a little more nervous than I usually am today because this game really means something. I’m glad that it did mean something because we need to start getting into that mindset to get ready for next week.”
Golden currently sits No. 2 in the 4A baseball CHSAA Selection & Seeding Index. The Demons will host one of the eight single-elimination 4A regional tournaments Saturday, May 16, at Golden High School.
“I think the mindset and intensity stays the same,” Paulson said preparing to host a regional tournament next Saturday. “It is a new season basically.”
