Mountain View is off to a 9-0 start this season. (Pam Wagner)
LOVELAND — A season ago, Mountain View’s softball team was talented but off to a shaky start.
The Mountain Lions began 3-6 with tough losses to Broomfield, Pueblo West, and rivals Thompson Valley and Loveland. They were beaten soundly by Class 4A powerhouses Wheat Ridge and Frederick by a combined score of 20-0. Since then, coach Randy Felton’s team forgot how to lose.
Mountain View, winners of 22 of its last 23 games, unleashed offensive fireworks during a 13-game win streak in 2013. The balanced lineup scored 10.4 runs per game during the stretch, claimed the Northern Conference crown, and reached the 4A quarterfinals before bowing out to the eventual champion, Wheat Ridge, 9-4.
The Mountain Lions haven’t looked back since.
“We’re deep all the way through our lineup. Right now all twelve of our players can hit well. (Last Thursday), we took three of our starters out and had them sit and I still think most of our complete lineup had multiple hits,” Felton said of Mountain View’s recent 15-1 thrashing of Boulder. “Then we put those starters back in for three other starters and they all got hits. I think we’re hitting up and down the order and we’re putting up a lot of runs.”
A lot of hits and a lot of runs have led Mountain View to a perfect 9-0 record this season and a No. 3 ranking in the current 4A CHSAANow softball poll behind familiar foes Wheat Ridge (No. 2) and Frederick (No. 1).
“I did think our offense this year was going to be stronger than it has in the past,” Felton said. “We’ve actually added a couple more pieces, so when we get up to sixth, seventh, eighth, I’m kind of like, ‘Alright let’s go.’
(Pam Wagner)
“We don’t have to be at the top of our order. We have as good a chance at getting runners in the bottom as at the top. It’s just that some of those in the middle drive in more runs. I’ve been very pleased with our offense and I did expect they would do pretty well.”
In most games, Mountain View’s offense has been downright scary at just over 13 runs scored per outing. The Mountain Lions rank first in 4A in total runs (119), first in runs batted in (105), fourth in batting (.454), fifth in slugging (.612), fifth in on-base percentage (.516), and fifth in stolen bases (37).
They will need to ride the offensive outburst throughout the year with good pitching but without a dominant strikeout starter.
The backbone of the powerful squad beyond the obvious, offensive firepower, has been experience with four seniors who have started at least three years. Courtney Baeckel, Taylor Seely, Jerhen Montez and Gianna Melaragno form the middle of the infield.
“Courtney Baeckel is kind of that glue for our whole team,” Felton said. “She is a senior this year and has been an all-conference player for a few years. Her intangibles are what probably helps us the most. She’s probably one of the best instinctive base runners that I’ve seen in our program. She has great leadership out on the field making sure people are in the right situation at the right time.
“She does a lot of other things, but then she also puts up big numbers,” Felton added. “She’s one of the best defensive players that we’ve had. At first base, some of the plays she makes and some of the plays that she saves people on are huge.”
Baeckel, batting .613 with 17 runs batted in and six stolen bases in nine games, has been the main sparkplug for a team hoping to reach the semifinals for the second time in school history.
(Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
“Every year our number one goal is to try and win our conference,” said Felton, who was an assistant during Mountain View’s last semis appearance in 2008. “Then we try to get through regionals and we try to get to state. I always tell them, getting to the final 16 is a big goal to have, because there’s not that many that make it. Just making a state appearance is a pretty big thing.
“We’ve been to the state tournament seven out of the last eight years, I think, so it’s getting to the point where our seniors now have gone to the state playoffs every year, but we can’t get past the final eight.”
Once there, the Mountain Lions hope to make some noise.
“Obviously our number one goal is to win it,” Felton added. “Everyone’s goal ultimately should be to win it, but a smaller goal is to make it farther than we have lately, which would be the final four. Our goal is to get to the final four and ultimately to win a state championship, but we also know the Fredericks and the Wheat Ridges and the Eries. We know that if we don’t play the best that weekend, we’re not going to win. If they play better than we do, they’re going to win.
“I can’t give that goal of we should win, because we’re that good,” Felton concluded. “We know how tough those other teams are.”