Softball: Broomfield blasts past Rocky Mountain in white-hot start
Sep. 2—BROOMFIELD — Winning hasn't just become a norm for Broomfield softball. Nine games into the 2023 season, it's become the expectation. It certainly doesn't hurt that the Eagles have an ace who's ice cold under pressure.
On Saturday morning on her home diamond, sophomore pitcher Ireland Heer didn't let a late Rocky Mountain rally faze her. When the Lobos loaded the bases on one out in the top of the sixth, with two runs already safely stored in the dugout, she took a deep breath.
Heer struck out the next two batters to leave all three runners stranded, then relied on her offense to get the job done in the bottom of the frame en route to a 12-2 final decision. She finished her campaign in the circle with eight strikeouts, allowing two earned runs and just four hits.
"She's only a sophomore and she's been pitching really big games for two years now," head coach Kale Gilmore said. "I think when she throws, we have an awful lot of confidence behind her. Our defense knows she's going to keep us in every single game. As long as they play solid behind her, they know they always have a chance to win. That's a good feeling when you're on a team with somebody like that in the circle."
The confidence surging throughout Broomfield's lineup bubbled to the surface through every base hit, every stolen base and every defensive play. The Eagles showcased their versatility and depth every time they stepped into the batter's box, as seven girls knocked in runs. Freshman second baseman Koko Pottorff led the offensive drive with three RBIs off of two hits, then scored a run herself. Heer padded her numbers even more with two RBIs and her own hit.
Their current 8-1 start comes on the heels of a state tournament berth that lasted only one game and the exit of former ace Breanna Fiala as well as Caylie Eiguren.
"It definitely pushed us a lot more because I think we realized that we needed to work a lot harder and really get there mentally and just get there physically," Heer said. "I think that we've really just gotten a lot closer from the beginning. We've gelled really well together."
After a few quick innings, the Eagles caught the contagion that ultimately led to Rocky Mountain's downfall. Pottorff served as patient zero in the bottom of the third, when her fly ball to left center drove junior Mailee Blenman home. Sophomore Avery Gines got in on the action with a sac fly of her own before sophomore Jenna Kapelke scored on a wild pitch.
The Eagles led 3-0 by the end of the first three frames. Two innings later, their scoring bug turned into a raging pandemic.
Heer's hard ground ball to left field to drive two runs home started the fifth, and junior Elyana Braly wasted no time capitalizing with another RBI base hit. Blenman then sacrificed herself to allow Braly to score before Pottorff, once again, put the Lobos on notice. Her hit to nearly the same spot drove in two more scores. Broomfield took a 9-0 advantage.
After Heer gave up just a couple of runs in a shaky sixth, her teammates repaid the favor for a solid start up to that point. That payment came first on a Braly RBI double, then culminated in scoring singles from junior Maleea Taga and sophomore Lauren Hernandez.
The Lobos, who entered the contest with a 5-2-1 record, just didn't have the weapons needed to match Broomfield's arsenal. The Eagles, ranked No. 8 in MaxPreps' Class 5A rankings, will now turn their attention toward their road game at Poudre on Tuesday afternoon.
Gilmore can't wait to see what else they'll accomplish this fall.
"I think from a talent perspective, we're as strong as we've ever been just in the program," he said. "We're just young. We've got some girls that are playing a few different positions and learning and we're just kind of growing together. There are multiple girls that can play multiple positions. We have six swing girls that can play varsity or JV this year, which we've never had. From a depth perspective, it's as good as we've ever had."
