LOVELAND — Even in a game with some uncharacteristic mistakes and unearned runs for both clubs, Class 4A No. 2 Mountain View secured the Northern Conference championship over visiting No. 1 Silver Creek largely on the strength of Holden Bernhardt’s left arm and bat.
Bernhardt, one of the Mountain Lions’ trusty senior twins along with his brother Locke, went three-for-three in the batter’s box with two RBI singles while striking out 12 and giving up only two unearned runs on the mound during a 4-2 win over the Raptors at Greg Brock Field on Thursday.
A season ago, Mountain View (16-2) was in the same situation — a game away from clinching the Northern crown — but a 14-6 loss at Longmont prevented the Mountain Lions from doing so. This time around, Bernhardt and company built a 2-0 lead in the first on an RBI single by their fourth-year stalwart, coupled that with a run on a wild pitch, and the Raptors (14-4) were never able to gain the lead in a closely contested showdown.
“Holden was dominant today,” Mountain View coach Brian Smela said. “He never really gave up any hard hits. The trouble he got into, we just couldn’t catch the ball. He pitched like a senior ace should pitch.”
Holden Bernhardt of Mountain View. (Brock Laue/CHSAANow.com)
For Bernhardt, nerves were in play early, but a pitcher sporting a 0.92 ERA going into Thursday, with an unblemished 6-0 record after the conference clincher, got into a comfort zone on the bump.
“I was a little nervous going in pitching,” he said. “After awhile I just settled down and treated them like any other team and tried to hit my spots.”
Touted as a pitcher’s duel between the capable arms of one of the Bernhardt brothers and Silver Creek’s Cole Winn or Austin Wood, Wood took to the mound for the Raptors and both pitchers flashed their ability in stretches. But, while Silver Creek’s ace had five strikeouts, his command wasn’t on cue like Bernhardt’s with a number of wild pitches and a few walks.
For Mountain View, sealing the Northern championship against some of the state’s finest teams, their first conference crown in six years, marked an achievement that both coaches and players alike set as one of the team’s ultimate goals in 2016.
“We set the goal first day of practice this year,” Smela said. “We were a game away last year. We talked about what our pathway needed to be. They stuck to the plan and were able to clinch it.”
“It’s really monumental to win this league. It’s just so tough every year. You have to be so battle-tested to be able to do it. To be able to get there, it probably won’t sink in for me for awhile.”
The teams also entered the day in a close race in the RPI standings with Silver Creek No. 1 and Mountain View No. 2. After the result, they switched places with Mountain View taking over the top spot in the 4A RPI.
They face each other again on Friday at Silver Creek in a game more for bragging rights and momentum. Only league winners earn the right to host districts next week during the start of playoffs, so anyone looking to take down the Mountain Lions, perhaps the No. 1 seed in the bracket, will have to begin at Greg Brock Field in Loveland, where the hosts have only lost once this season.