Broomfield, Cherokee Trail to continue tied game today
BROOMFIELD — Broomfield senior third Baseman Chloe Eiguren made the last out of the Eagles 2019 season And wasn’t going to let that happen Again.
With her No. 2-seed Eagles facing elimination At the hands of No. 10 Cherokee Trail in the Class 5A state quarterfinals on Thursday, Eiguren stepped to the plate with two outs in the Bottom of the seventh inning. Having just watched fellow senior Hadlee Reichert get herself into scoring position with An Aggressive steal of second Base, Eiguren hit A ground-rule douBle over the Center field wall At Broomfield High School that scored Reichert And
tied the game.
The battle for a spot in Saturday’s semifinals was eventually called with the score tied 5-5 after eight innings and will be continued at 3:30 p.m. on Friday.
Despite trailing for most of Thursday’s game, the Eagles weren’t ready for their excellent 2020 season to end. Thanks to some clutch heroics from their seniors, the Broomfield girls will play for at least one more day.
“I was so happy that Hadlee stole second base,” Eiguren said. “I was holding my breath the entire time she was running and until she was called safe. We’re so glad we’re still playing and we’ll try to wrap it up tomorrow.”
Cherokee Trail (15-2) and Broomfield (16-1) were tied 2-2 after the first inning before the host Eagles pulled ahead in the bottom of the third when Kenzi Garner singled to drive in Reichert. Cherokee Trail retook the lead with a pair of runs in the fifth and scored again in the sixth to lead 5-3.
Broomfield scored a run in the bottom of the sixth when Cherokee Trail catcher Caitlin Cushenberry’s throw back to pitcher Jenna Medhus went wild, allowing senior Claire Comstock to score from third. Then in the seventh, the Eagles decided to have Reichert still second with one out to get into scoring position. It was a risk that ended up paying off since it allowed her to score on Eiguren’s ground-rule double rather than having to hold up at third and hope the Eagles could get another hit to bring her home.
“We wanted to get a runner in scoring position,” Broomfield head coach Kale Gilmore said. “We know their catcher is a really good player but we also have a lot of faith in Hadlee’s speed. We thought the risk was worth the reward there because we had some senior players coming up that we just had to put our faith in. We hoped they’d come through in the big moment and they did.”
The winner of the game, which will resume with the top of the ninth inning on Friday, will face No. 3 Chatfield (15-3) in the semifinals at Aurora Sports Park on Saturday.