GREELEY — Resurrection Christian faced elimination from the Class 3A state baseball tournament twice on Saturday, and both times the Cougars survived to advance to the tourney’s second weekend.
After dropping their opener to Coal Ridge, 11-0, on Friday, the No. 4 seed Cougars bounced back with a 7-6 victory over No. 8 Forge Christian and then held off Patriot League rival No. 2 Berthoud, 12-7, Saturday at Butch Butler Field.
RCS (23-5) advances to face No. 5 Coal Ridge again at 10 a.m. next Friday back at Butch Butler.
“I think yesterday we all knew that we were a better baseball team than that,” RCS head coach Mike Magaro said. “Baseball is a game where you have some down days with the sticks and everything. They didn’t like the taste in their mouths afterwards, and at the end of the day we just have a lot of faith that that’s not who we are as a baseball team. We’re a lot better than that.
“We just came out here and stayed loose and had a lot of fun with a ‘What do we have to lose at this point?’ type of thing.”
Against Berthoud in the Cougars’ second game of the day, they turned to freshman Braedyn Budd to get them another week of baseball.
The first-year player delivered, pitching more than six strong innings. He didn’t get into trouble until the seventh, when the Spartans scored five times.
He ended up giving up seven runs on six hits, but five of those runs and four of the hits came in the seventh, when the Spartans refused to go down without a fight.
“It was definitely an honor to get the ball,” Budd said. “My defense had me the whole time. Deegan (Corrigan) had clutch (at-bats), doubles, getting on base. My whole team, my dugout supported me. My coaches, everyone, they’re great.”
Offensively, the Cougars scored one in the first, four in the third and three in the fourth to take an 8-0 lead. The Spartans didn’t get on the scoreboard until the bottom of the fourth, when they scored one. They added another in the bottom of the sixth and trailed 8-2 going to the seventh.
RCS added four more runs in the top of the final inning to extend their lead to 12-2 before the Spartans got five in the bottom of the frame. Reliever Merick Fisbeck got Kaeden Kettle to ground out to third to end the game.
Against the Spartans, the Cougars got big games offensively from Vaughn Green, who had two hits and drove in four, and Corrigan, who had a pair of doubles and three RBIs. Including the game against Forge Christian, Corrigan had four doubles on the day.
“I was seeing the ball well today,” Corrigan said. “I think this whole week of practice has been helping me lead up to the games this weekend. I was really playing for my season, and it’s a great thing that we extended it another week.”
Offensively for the Spartans, Jack McCrea had a pair of hits and two RBIs. Connor Jorissen added two more hits and three RBIs. Adam Hayes had three hits and drove in two.
Prior to the game, McCrea, Jorissen and Kettle were recognized on the field with their diplomas after having to miss Berthoud’s graduation ceremony to play baseball one last time.
Berthoud finished its season at 25-3, easily the most wins in program history.
“It was a tough end to the year,” Berthoud coach Buddy Kouns said. “I know the boys are disappointed. Give them a little time because young people are pretty resilient. I think that they’ll be able to step back, and they’ll realize 25 wins, that’s no joke. That’s a good baseball team over there that we just lost to.”
Saturday’s game was just another in a line of close battles between the teams. Last year in the regular season, the Spartans won a one-run game, and earlier this year Berthoud won the conference game between the teams, 7-1.
Both teams finished the regular season ranked in the top four in Class 3A, and both coaches have a mutual respect for each other and their programs.
“They’re really well-coached,” Magaro said of Berthoud. “Buddy does a great job over there. I knew they weren’t going to lay down and die on us. Being able to see them earlier in the year definitely helped with it. They’re a quality club and I’m bummed out to see a team from the Patriot League that I have so much respect for have to exit the state tournament because they’ve had a great year.”
Against Forge Christian early Saturday, the Cougars jumped out to a sizeable lead early also. They led 4-0 after two innings and 7-1 after four.
Starting pitcher Graham Riggs kept the Fury off-guard until the top of the sixth, when Forge Christian scored five runs to make it a one-run game at 7-6.
Riggs allowed six runs (two earned) on five hits while walking six and striking out six. He was relieved in the sixth by Fisbeck, who ended the Fury’s rally in that inning and then faced four batters to get the final three outs in the seventh.
That set up the showdown against Berthoud where the Cougars avenged that regular-season loss to the Spartans and ensured they would be back in Greeley next weekend.
