Daniel P. Johnson
DENVER — The two staples of the 2012 Regis Raiders baseball team were pitching and defense.
Both faltered on May 26 in a Class 5A State Baseball Championship elimination game against Cherry Creek at All-City Stadium, as the defending state champions were knocked out of the tournament with a 9-6 defeat.
“I told the guys after the game that it would take our ‘A’ game to win, especially at this stage of the tournament,” first-year head coach Walt Weiss said. “We weren’t ourselves the first couple of innings.
“Pitching and defense was our formula this year and they got away from us early.”
Regis (20-6) uncharacteristically committed four errors — three in the first two innings — and Weiss was forced to go to his bullpen early, as starter David Peterson battled command issues (he walked four) and allowed six runs (three earned) in just an inning of work.
Daniel Sutherland relieved Peterson in the second and went the rest of the way. He allowed three runs (two earned) on six hits, walked one and struck out four.
“Daniel’s a great kid,” Weiss said. “He kind of gets lost in the shadows behind our No. 1 (Peter Bayer) and No. 2 (Peterson), but he’s done a great job for us all year.”
The Raiders trimmed the 6-1 deficit to 7-5, thanks to two runs in the fifth inning. Brody Weiss knocked in Max George with an RBI single to leftfield and Jordan Kennedy drove in the second run with a sacrifice fly.
Cherry Creek’s Derik Beauprez hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth to put the Bruins ahead 9-5, but Regis didn’t wilt under the pressure and made things interesting in the last inning.
In the seventh, Jack Hardeman led off with a walk, moved to second on a George single and scored after walks to Joey Larson and Kennedy. With the bases still loaded, Cherry Creek’s Mason Mostajo struck out Patrick Dinges to end the game.
“We just kept trying to dig out runs,” said George, who was 2-for-2 with three runs scored. “Daniel pitched well enough for us to win the game, we just didn’t have our “A” game defensively and that cost us.”
Bayer shuts down Legend
The Raiders, behind the dominant pitching of right-hander, Peter Bayer, topped Legend 4-0 on May 25.
Bayer tossed a complete game three-hitter. He struck out four and walked just two batters. The only real danger he faced was in the third inning when he hit two consecutive batters and walked another to load the bases. Legend’s Jake Jenkins grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the inning and Bayer cruised from there, allowing just a two-out single in the seventh.
Offensively, Regis did its damage early as they put up two runs in the first and another in the second to grab a 3-0 lead. George, so often the catalyst for the Raiders’ offense, started things off against Legend with a leadoff single, stole second, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Joey Larson and scored on an error by Legend catcher, Mickey Peterson, who overthrew pitcher Brooks Trujillo.
One pitch later, Brody Weiss belted a Trujillo pitch over the centerfield wall for a solo home run. In the second inning, Andrew Schmidt led off with a single, advanced to second on a Pat Powers walk and scored after two straight wild pitches by Trujillo.
The Raiders pushed across their final run in the seventh as Larson reached on an error, stole second and was driven in by Jordan Kennedy’s RBI double to centerfield.
