Dakota Ridge captured its district on Saturday. (Brian Miller/CHSAANow.com)
HIGHLANDS RANCH – Having already watched the defending state champions be eliminated on their home field, Dakota Ridge’s baseball team turned an up-and-down start of its own into a day to remember.
The Eagles jumped out to a 10-0 lead in their opener of the Class 5A District 4 tournament at Rock Canyon High School, only to have Chaparral storm back and make things interesting. Dakota Ridge regrouped to finish off the Wolverines before dispatching Bear Creek 6-2 in the title game Saturday to punch its ticket to the 5A state tournament, which starts May 20.
“I’ve had such a good feeling all week. We’ve had a great week of practice,” Eagles coach Jeff Legault said. “I was really confident going into today, but now that it’s finally happened, I’m ecstatic and I’m so proud of them.”
Dakota Ridge (15-6) hasn’t been to state since 2012, but was one of five mid-range seeds to advance on a day where each of the top five seeds in 5A was eliminated. One of those teams was No. 5 Rock Canyon, which fell 4-3 to No. 28 Bear Creek on Saturday morning.
The Bears (9-12) scored three runs in the first inning and held on for the victory.
“They’re a feisty, feisty team,” Legault said. “They’re all coming back. They’ve got a lot of underclassmen, and they’re going to be a team to be reckoned with in the future for sure.”
The Eagles built a 10-0 lead on Chaparral behind five RBIs from Carter Akerfelds, but the Wolverines eventually closed to within three runs at 11-8. Home runs from Bailey Collins and Thomas Nagel gave Dakota Ridge some breathing room, and Ryan Faircloth closed things out to send the team into the district title game.
“It definitely gave us a little bit of energy for this game,” Eagles catcher Kyle Derr said. “We had to come out and compete and play.”
Dakota Ridge had played Bear Creek a little more than two weeks ago, posting a 7-2 victory. Akerfelds went the distance in that game and got the nod again Saturday, overcoming a bumpy start to allow one hit in four innings of work with three strikeouts.
“I just kind of lost my head there for a little bit the first inning,” said Akerfelds, who credited his teammates’ defense for coming up big all day. “A couple key hits there really got me back into it, and then I just settled in from there.”
The Bears jumped out to a 1-0 lead after Walker Rumsey, who led off with a walk, scored on a fielder’s choice. Dakota Ridge escaped a two-on jam with a timely double play.
The Eagles tied it up on an errant pickoff throw in the second inning before taking the lead in the fourth on an RBI double from Derr and a run-scoring single by Peyton Turner.
Faircloth – who was 3-for-3 with an intentional walk and two runs scored – drove in Bailey Collins in the fifth to make it 4-1 and chase Bear Creek starter Noah Montenegro. Two batters later Derr brought home two more runs with another double.
“I was just trying to stay short like I’ve been doing all week,” Derr said. “Just trying to get those runs in and help out my team.”
Dakota Ridge opened each of the four middle innings with a hit, and in three of those frames the runner came around to score.
“That’s one of our games goals every day, is to get that leadoff guy on,” Legault said. “We did great and hit the ball, and were able to cash in on it too.”
Christian Hiep was 1-for-2 at the plate for the Bears with an RBI double and a sacrifice bunt. Montenegro allowed four runs in 4.1 innings of work, striking out three and walking two.
Collins earned the save for the Eagles, allowing one run in three innings with three strikeouts. The team can now turn its attention to next weekend with the hope of making even more noise amongst the final eight still standing.
“I think everybody’s really pumped and focused for next week,” Akerfelds said. “Hopefully looking forward to a good week of practice to prep for that. I think we’ll be ready. I think we can do some damage at state.”