Cheyenne Mountain cherishes the journey in 4A championship game loss to Ponderosa | High School Sports
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Cheyenne Mountain coach Mark Swope just cannot assist but assume back again to midseason, when, right after an superb start out, his Pink-Tailed Hawks shed five game titles in a 7-match extend.
At that moment, he mentioned, the period could have long gone possibly way. Cheyenne Mountain could have continued not playing to its opportunity and losing games, or, the Hawks could work harder, and change issues all-around.
They selected the second selection.
“We experienced to reevaluate what our goals appeared like,” Swope claimed. “But you know what? We did occur collectively. We place the items of the puzzle with each other. The young ones fought by means of that adversity and finished up in a rather superior place.”
That location was the 4A point out title match on Saturday at UCHealth Park. But the Purple-Tailed Hawks could not total the remaining phase, slipping to Ponderosa 11-1 in five innings, as the Mustangs gained their next straight title. Just after the sport, Swope designed a place to remind his gamers of the way they turned the period all-around.
“I told them to retain their chin up, simply because we had a wonderful 12 months,” Swope explained.
The Hawks knew they’d have their work slice out for them from Ponderosa, a group they faced at the time in advance of in the postseason. They dropped that matchup 13-8, and embarked on a path to the championship where by a person a lot more decline would have despatched them home.
Ponderosa, in the meantime, cruised by means of their opponents. The Mustangs topped Northfield 14-2, Erie 19- and D’Evelyn 8-2 in advance of Saturday’s contest.
“They’re an awfully excellent workforce,” Swope mentioned. “And we knew we would have to participate in flawlessly. We didn’t. We did not engage in properly defensively, and we put some guys on base. The sport bought absent from us a minor bit.”
Cheyenne Mountain was in striking length by way of the initially three innings, trailing Ponderosa 3-1.
But by the time the fourth inning ended, the Hawks trailed 10-1.
The inning had a very little little bit of anything Cheyenne Mountain did not want: walks, mistakes, passed balls. And a whole whole lot of hitting. The Hawks utilised a few distinct pitchers in the inning.
“Their lineup, 1 by means of nine, is definitely excellent,” Swope claimed. “You really don’t usually see that in significant college lineups. So you have to be down in the zone, you have to work hitters, you have to make speeds and hope they are not looking at the ball that working day. And they had been viewing it today.”
It was a disappointing conclude to an incredible year for Cheyenne Mountain. One manufactured even far more complicated mainly because of the absence of Josh Collier, who died in a vehicle crash in October 2020. This would have been his senior period.
The Hawks designed positive he was with them every single stage of the way, using his jersey with them on to the area in the course of the nationwide anthem just before each and every contest.
“For teens to go via one thing like that, getting rid of a mate, and for a ton of them, that was the 1st time they shed an individual shut,” Swope stated. “It was hard on the boys, but I feel it aided knowing that we brought house with us.”
The Hawks needed to be the ones celebrating with a doggy pile at property plate on Saturday. For on their own, and for Josh. Baseball, like everyday living, isn’t usually honest. But that does not make it any much less worthwhile.
“We fought, we scratched, we did all the things we could to get listed here,” Swope said. “I’m very pleased of them.”
No question, Josh is, far too.
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