More photos. (Kevin Keyser/KeyserImages.com)
DENVER — Rocky Mountain and Chaparral may meet again on a baseball field in Denver later this season. Though, that matchup would look mighty different — and mean a whole lot more.
No. 2 Rocky Mountain beat No. 7 Chaparral 8-2 at Coors Field on Thursday afternoon, but it wasn’t the usual top-10 matchup loaded with implications. As is typical for these early-season games at the home of the Rockies, both teams did their best to get a large portion of their roster on the field during the game.
“This is tough to really get a feel for where you’re at, because you’re getting so many guys involved,” Rocky Mountain coach Scott Bullock said afterward.
Indeed, 19 Lobos were involved in the game in some fashion on Friday. Likewise, 18 Chaparral players saw the field.
More photos. (Kevin Keyser/KeyserImages.com)
It was also was the season-opener for both teams — on a big league field, no less — so the first-game jitters were in full effect. The two teams combined for 19 strikeouts.
“There’s a lot more pressure than just a regular season-opener,” Rocky Mountain center fielder Zach Hahn said. “You don’t want to mess anything up on the big stage in a Major League ballpark, just thinking about all the people who have played here, all the greats.”
Still, both teams had their moments on Thursday.
Hahn ignited Rocky’s offense in the third inning with a run-scoring, standup triple down the right-field line. The Lobos would go on to plate three more in the inning after six consecutive batters reached base for a 4-0 cushion.
“The first pitch, I got a fastball away and swung through that one,” Hahn said. “I just changed my approach a little bit, let the ball get a little bit deeper, got a fastball right where I was looking for it and hit it where it was pitched — right down the line.
“It was awesome to get things started. After that we just really clicked, got a big four-run inning off of that.”
Rocky added two more in the fifth and one each in the sixth and seventh.
Carl Stajduhar, the Lobos’ leading hitter last season during their run to the Class 5A title game, picked up right where he left off by going 2-for-3 with a walk and two RBIs. He hit .457 with eight home runs and 36 RBIs last season.
Thursday, the University of New Mexico recruit was all over the field. Stajduhar started the game at catcher, moved to first base, then to third and finished the game on the mound.
“He didn’t catch at all last year, but Carl can do a lot. He is a really good baseball player,” Bullock said. “When he goes on to college, it’ll be interesting to see where he ends up position-wise, because he’s a real versatile kid. And catching — he really hasn’t done much of that for us — that might be his ticket.”
More photos. (Kevin Keyser/KeyserImages.com)
Rocky Mountain senior Tyler Stevens went 3-for-3 with two runs scored. He gave up just one hit in two innings on the mound, and struck out two.
Lobos pitchers combined to give up three hits on Wednesday.
“I was really happy with those guys,” Bullock said.
Chaparral, meanwhile, got a great performance out of starter Brad Brown, a senior who allowed just one hit and struck out five in his two innings of work.
The Wolverines’ Keenan Eaton, a Vanderbilt recruit, went 1-for-3 with an RBI. But his moment came in the top of the seventh when he threw out a runner at the plate on a line from center field.
Both teams made the final eight last season, and would like to make their way back to the Denver-based State Championship Series. The bulk of that work will be done in the weeks and months to come. But first, they’ll each head to Arizona for spring tournaments, which are always a good gauge of a team’s strength.
Rocky Mountain will play in the Horizon National Invitational, while Chaparral heads to the Coach Bob National Invitational.
The win “gives us some momentum going into Arizona,” Hahn said. “We got the first-game jitters out, and there’s a lot we can take away from this game that we can put into Arizona.”