(Bethany Brookens/CHSAANow.com)
LAKEWOOD — After getting past “The Greenwalt Effect,” the Pueblo West baseball team can focus on winning a state baseball championship.
The Cyclones slipped past Windsor and standout pitcher Jake Greenwalt 3-1 on Saturday at All-Star Park to reach the title game of the Class 4A state baseball tournament.
Pueblo West (21-4), unbeaten in the eight-team field, meets once-beaten Valor Christian (21-4) at 10 a.m. Sunday in an effort to claim the school’s first baseball crown. If the Eagles win, it would force a second championship game — win and take all — at 12:30 p.m.
Valor Christian eliminated Erie (16-9) in Saturday’s first game to reach the title game.
Pueblo West had been ousted from the 4A tournament last season by Greenwalt and the Wizards in the first round of district play in Pueblo 2-0. In addition, Greenwalt has played “Pueblo killer” this season, knocking off Pueblo East 2-0 during the regular season and shutting out Pueblo Centennial 3-0 in district play.
The Cyclones erased a 1-0 Windsor lead, tying the game in the third and scoring an unearned run in the fourth for a 2-1 cushion. They added an insurance run in the sixth.
Zach Maize went six innings for Pueblo West, giving up Mitch Watson’s one-out home run down the left field line in the first inning. He threw scoreless ball after that, blanking the Wizards for the next five innings. Maize (9-1) struck out a career-high seven, including three in the fourth inning.
Mitchell Wagoner relieved Maize in the seventh and ran into some trouble as Branon Penninger ripped a one-out single and Watson walked.
But with the tying runs on base, he struck out Tyler Shubert and got Greenwalt to fly out to short center field to earn the save.
Greenwalt, who lost for the first time following nine victories, threw seven innings, giving up three runs, two earned. He struck out seven, walked two and hit two batters. He came into the game with an ERA under 1.00, striking out nearly two batters per inning.
“I wanted to shove strikes,” said Maize, who was lifted after throwing 98 pitches. “That’s what I was told to do. Just make sure to get this team a win and give us championship life.
“The guys were telling me to do my job and they were going to get runs for me. I was just going to go as far as I could go,” Maize added. “Now, I get to sit and watch. I wished I would be able to pitch in the championship game because that’s every pitcher’s dream. But (Valor) has hit two home runs off me and I see what the coaches are doing. I respect that.”
Pueblo West coach Dan Sanchez said his team took a good approach against Greenwalt.
“I think we’re mature hitters right now,” he said. “We’ve seen pitchers like him before like in Arizona. He’s good and we did the little things we needed to to get a win against him.”
Sanchez added that his team is playing well at the right time.
“The kids are confident right now,” Sanchez said. “They just thought they were going to get it down. They didn’t panic when (Watson) hit that home run. Kudos to Zach (Maize). Two weekends in a row he battled his butt off and I can’t give him enough credit.
“We did all the right little things and the ball bounced right a few times. We have decisions to make as to who to throw (today), but those are good decisions.”
Neither Pueblo West nor Valor Christian has won a state baseball title. The Cyclones have won a football title and captured the 4A basketball crown this past March.
Valor Christian 6, Erie 3
The Eagles used a five-run fifth inning to break open a 1-1 tie and went on to claim the victory.
Luke Bozarth ripped a two-run double down the right field line with the bases loaded to make it 3-1 and Erik Ohman followed with a two-run triple off the left-field wall for a 5-1 advantage. Joel Pierce drove in the fifth run of the inning with an infield single, scoring Ohman.
Luke Ziegler went six innings to pick up his sixth win against one loss for Valor. He scattered three hits, striking out five and walking five. The sophomore right-hander survived a shaky first inning when he walked three but wiggled out of it with just one unearned run on a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play.
“I struggled with my control early in the game but once I found my off-speed pitch, I felt OK,” Ziegler said. “We still approach things one game at a time. We knew coming into the weekend we had to win three but we’re not looking ahead.”
Erie rallied for a pair of runs in the seventh against Valor reliever Nyk Crumrine and had the tying run at the plate in Luke Conilogue with two runners on. But Conilogue lined out to Crumrine to end the game and Erie’s season.
The Tigers ended at 16-9.
“It was totally uncharacteristic of us to give up six freebies in the first inning,” Valor coach Keith Wahl said. ” All we talk about is the freebie war. We were able to answer back in the first and after that things went our way.
“I am interested to see what Pueblo West does. In 2013 when they lost to Mountain View, they held their ace.”
Erie coach Harold Simmons praised the fight of his team.
“A lot of these guys had older brothers play and have been around the program a long time,” Simmons said. ” They bought into our program and weren’t willing to let it go even in a game where we could have laid down.
“Their lineup was too good for us to make a mistake. They had some big hits and we put ourselves in a hole. We couldn’t push any runs across. Ziegler is a heck of a player.”