(Brock Laue)
FORT COLLINS — Rick Harig, Fairview’s baseball coach, was trying to remember the last time his Knights beat Rocky Mountain during the high school season.
“We beat them once last summer and we lost to them several times last summer, but in the spring it’s been awhile,” Harig said. “When (Rocky Mountain coach Scott) Bullock got here, they’ve been solid for that many years.”
The powerhouse Rocky program claimed four state titles in a row from 2007-10, have won Front Range League championships in 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2013, and produced a pipeline of college talent under Bullock’s watch since 2002.
It’s probably fair to say that several teams around the state also wonder when they last defeated the powerful Lobos.
Fairview wondered no more with an impressive 10-7 road win over No. 5 Rocky at Gabe Pando Park in Fort Collins Thursday afternoon.
The Knights, ranked No. 7 in this week’s CHSAANow 5A baseball poll, had an offensive explosion in the third inning with nine runs, all against one of Rocky Mountain’s best arms in Carl Stajduhar, a New Mexico commit.
The Knights started the inning with a bit of luck as Rocky Mountain’s shortstop, Tyler Stevens, bobbled the flip from second baseman Dean Lawson, ending a chance at a double play. Leadoff man Cameron Frazier, who had two hits in third and started 3-for-3 at the plate Thursday, scored on the miscue.
The floodgates opened as the Lobos recorded three errors in the inning and gave up back-to-back doubles to Jacob Thoning and Tobiah Armstrong. Stajduhar gave up six runs — four earned — and eight hits before exiting in the third.
Before Rocky knew what hit it, literally and figuratively, it was 9-0 Fairview.
“They opened the door by not turning the double play and then we scored nine runs after,” Harig said about the wild inning. “Baseball’s a funny game, but we still have to score nine runs. We produced when we had an opportunity. We had to keep them off-balance, because they can really swing it.”
The Knights took advantage of the offensive fireworks in the third and starting pitcher Ryan Kokora kept the Lobos guessing with a mixture of pitches.
(Brock Laue)
“He threw a lot of off-speed just because they had shown that they’re going to tee up on people, so we kind of pitched backwards to them a little bit,” Harig said of Kokora. “He threw a lot of curveballs in fastball counts and just tried to keep them off-balance. It worked pretty well.”
Kokora gave up four runs in the third, but struck out eight batters, mostly on change-ups and curveballs, and limited Rocky’s traditionally powerful lineup to only five runs.
The Lobos are now 0-2 in the Front Range, 3-5 overall but 2-2 against in-state teams. They boast six Division I signees in their senior class, including one of the premier players in Colorado — Stajduhar, a powerful hitter who went 3-for-4 at the plate with three scorching doubles.
Still, they could never overcome their early deficit.
Rocky Mountain did chip into the lead throughout and made a final push as one of Stajduhar’s doubles brought speedy Lawson home to make it 10-6 Fairview in the sixth. Tyler Stevens, another New Mexico commit, hit a deep sac fly to bring Kyle Reisman in to score, cutting the lead to three runs.
But Fairview’s Mike Vlasity, a side-armer, got the Knights out of the inning and then proceeded to sit down three batters in a row in the seventh, two by strikeout, to seal one of the bigger wins for Fairview baseball in recent years.
Fairview improved to 2-0 in the Front Range League and 9-1 overall. Its lone loss on the season came at the hands of an Arizona team in an out-of-state tournament. They also beat Fossil Ridge on Tuesday, 19-8, and are starting to make noise in the 5A ranks.
Both players and coach know the season is still young though.
“We’ve got a big string of tough games,” Harig said. “We just played Fossil, now we played (Rocky Mountain), we play Monarch, and we play Legacy. So we really feel like the first four games are the toughest stretch for anybody. We’ve got two under our belt and we’re trying not to look too far ahead and just focus on Saturday now, which is Monarch. They’re a good team.
“We’re not trying to look too far ahead. There’s way too many good teams that will stick it to you,” Harig added. “We just want to keep getting better and putting ourselves in a good position to be in a good seed, make the playoffs, that kind of thing.”
“They’re just solid overall, hitting, defense, pitching,” Frazier said of Rocky Mountain, “so it’s really good confidence-wise for us to get a win like this. It kind of sends a message to all the other teams in the state that we’re for real this year, but it’s also just another win in the league and they’re all important.”