Pueblo County survives second day of CHSAA state baseball, will play Golden next

The Pueblo County Hornets survived a crazy second day of the CHSAA baseball state playoff tournament. After losing their first game of the tournament to Falcon on Friday, the Hornets were set up for a tough task: win two on Saturday to keep your season alive.

County went into the first game of Saturday carrying the momentum they built in the final inning of Friday's loss. The Hornets put up three runs in the first inning and two in the second to build a comfortable 5-0 lead over Lewis-Palmer for pitcher Johnathan Gonzales.

Cohen Glen was stellar in this one, going 4 for 4 in the first game of the day and helping the Hornets secure a much-needed 10-0 victory over Lewis-Palmer. Lewis-Palmer had beaten the Hornets 10-8 earlier in the season, so it was a bit of a revenge game for the Hornets and it could not have come a better time.

The second game of the day was a thriller against the tournament's No. 1 team in Windsor. The Wizards put up four runs in the first inning and seemed like they were going to be in control of the game early on, but the Hornets stayed the course and kept grinding as they have all season long.

In the top of the fifth inning, things started to explode — Roy Higinbotham hit a grand slam to give the Hornets a 9-6 lead after trailing 6-5. They would eventually extend that lead to 15-8 going into the bottom of the sixth inning.

However, the Wizards were the top-ranked team in the state for a reason. They would battle back and make it a 17-15 game in the bottom of the seventh inning. But the Hornets never wavered and got a groundball double play to end the game and advance to the next round of the playoffs.

Because the Hornets were in the consolation bracket, they must win two more games to reach the title game. Their next game will be Friday, May 31, at the U.S. Air Force Academy as they face off against the No. 2-seeded Golden Demons.

Pueblo County fell into consolation bracket after Friday's comeback bid fell short

Prior to Saturday's consolation bracket action, Pueblo County was entering the CHSAA baseball state playoff tournament for the second year in a row.

Their first game of the tournament was against the Falcon Falcons whom the Hornets lost to earlier in the season by four runs at home. This time around, the Falcons faired the same as they were able to come away with a win against the Hornets, although in a closer game, 5-4.

The Falcons led the game from the very beginning, but the Hornets would not give up and put together a late rally to make the game interesting. Unfortunately for the Hornets, they were a few innings too late.

More: Pueblo County escapes regionals, CHSAA baseball state tournament up next

Friday's loss was a game of two halves

Friday's game started strong for the Hornets and starting pitcher Roy Higinbotham. What began with a quick first half of the inning, the Hornets were able to get on base in the first to try and get on the board, but unfortunately left two runners stranded.

The second inning proved costly for the Hornets. The pitching was off and so was the catching in this inning. Three passed balls resulted in a quick 4-0 inning for the Falcons. The Hornets were now down, facing one of the best pitchers in the state in Falcon’s Isaiah Sadorus.

In the third inning, the battering ram of Higinbotham and Luke Rohrer was able to get right, only giving up one run in the inning to keep the game within reach at 5-0.

Late inning surge

The Hornets found some life in the later stages of the game. After coming away with some clean innings, Higinbotham stepped up in the bottom of the sixth inning to hit a bomb to deep left field to get the Hornets on the board and give them some life.

In the seventh inning, down by four runs, the Hornets started to mount a comeback. They loaded the bases up for Higinbotham who was intentionally walked by the Falcons, walking in a run to make it 5-2.

Next up to bat was Johnathan Gonzales, who banged a ball deep over the centerfielder's glove, resulting in a ground rule double and scoring two more runs to make it 5-4. The Hornets got another runner on base to load them up once again. With the bases loaded, junior Julian Reyes stepped up to the plate.

The crowd at this point was roaring on both sides.

Reyes swung at a pitch, and all the momentum could be seen drifting away as the ball shuffled its way to the second baseman for the easy toss to first to end the game. The comeback would fall short, and the Falcons would advance to the next round.

The loss stung the Hornets big time, who are a very senior-heavy team.

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Head coach Matt Eades spoke about the team's performance after the game.

“I don't want to say it was jitters, because we got a zero in the first inning, but the second inning was probably our worst defensive inning of the season,” Eades said. “We had some routine plays, we had trouble throwing strikes, and as a unit, it was a tough inning.”

Eades had no doubt in his mind even after the big second inning to leave the battering ram of Higinbotham and Rohrer in to keep the game close at hand.

“They are our guys, we are a senior-led team, and they handle their business,” Eades said. “Mistakes happen, unfortunately for them, it was really an inopportune time today.”

With the loss, the Hornets fell into the consolation bracket. Coach Eades said the team would be focused and ready to go Saturday — a claim the Hornets backed up on Saturday with the pair of wins.

“We talked about hopefully carrying the momentum from the seventh inning into game two,” Eades said Friday. “We know there is going to be a war going on between two good teams, and it’s going to be two teams that are backed into a corner, back against the wall, so we are going to find out a lot about who we are on Saturday and if we want to stay in this thing.”

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Christopher Abdelmalek is a sports reporter for the Pueblo Chieftain and can be reached at cabdelmalek@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @chowebacca. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo County baseball win big on second day of CHSAA state tournament