Buffs struggle in first round of NCAA championship

Mcdermott shoots 71

If the Colorado men's golf team still wants to make noise in its first NCAA championship appearance in 21 years, it will require a come-frombehind effort.

It was a frustrating opening round for the Buffaloes on Friday at the Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.

After securing the first NCAA berth in 21 years with a team-wide effort in the final round of the Central Regional last week — four of the Buffs' five golfers finished under par, and the other was even — it was a much different story on Friday. None of CU'S five players was able to save par, leaving the Buffs in the bottom third of the 30team field with a 12-overpar 292 heading into Saturday's second round.

The Buffs' highest-scoring round at the regional last week was a 284.

Dylan Mcdermott carded CU'S top score, finishing with a 1-over 71. It was a steady effort for CU'S top scorer this season, with Mcdermott balancing a pair of birdies against three bogeys.

It was the back nine that proved most troublesome to the bulk of CU'S lineup.

Hunter Swanson was at 1-under going into the final three holes but struggled down the stretch, suffering a bogey on No. 16 and a double bogey on No. 18 to finish with a 2-over

72. Justin Biwer was even going into No. 12 but recorded three bogeys without a birdie the rest of the way to finish at plus-3 73. And Jack Holland's round (plus-6, 76) featured five bogeys and no birdies over the final 11 holes.

Tucker Clark, whose 67 in the second round of the Central Regional was critical in CU'S third-place finish, struggled to a plus-10

80.

After an early tee time on Friday, the Buffs will begin round two on Saturday at 2:20 p.m. with work to do to keep their postseason alive. Following Sunday's third round, the field will be cut to 15 teams, plus the top nine individuals not on those teams, for the fourth and final round of stroke play. After that, the field is cut to eight teams that advance to the final rounds of match play on Tuesday and Wednesday.

top long-term priorities, but that's not at the top of the list for now.

"It's not just the rebuilding of that side (that's needed), even though that's something that's important for us and something that I'd like to do before my last days here at Colorado," he said. "The first priority is we've got to get our scoreboard fixed and we've got to do that sooner rather than later. It's old and we want to get a much larger board with a ribbon board around it for our fans. It'll help the in-game experience.

"Certainly we need to fix the west side. We've got a plan for that. When we do that, we haven't determined that yet. Then we've got to look over to the Events Center and see what needs to be done there to upgrade that. All these (are) things that I'd like to get done in my time that I'll be here at Colorado."

This summer, CU is upgrading the facilities on the east side of campus, including a new lacrosse field, upgrading the outdoor track in preparation for hosting the 2024 Pac-12 championships, lights at Prentup Field for soccer and new buildings for skiing, soccer and track and field.

"We're doing a lot and we expect all of our sports to have really good years next year," George said.

On a day once again marred by the theatrics of Mother Nature, Holy Family baseball put on a show of its own.

The Tigers entered the Class 4A state tournament at Cheyenne Mountain High School as the No. 1 seed on Friday and, with a little bit of drama, worked their way into Saturday's semifinals.

They began their day on Friday with a 9-5 victory over No. 9 Lutheran, then turned around and beat No. 4 Golden with an 8-5 final after a lengthy lightning delay. Both wins came by way of explosive fourth innings.

In the earlier game, the Tigers and Lions stayed deadlocked at 2-2 through the first three and a half innings. Then Holy Family's offense found its spark. In the bottom of the fourth, senior third baseman Ryan Schellinger got the ball rolling with a line drive to left field to allow three of his men to score, before a triple from senior pitcher Jacob Syverson sent Schellinger and junior shortstop Cole Kuszak across home plate, as well.

Junior first baseman Jayden Watts and sophomore right fielder Logan Seifarth then got in on the action with an RBI apiece before the Lions were finally able to stop the defensive bleeding. The Tigers, after netting seven runs in the fourth inning, led 9-2. Lutheran couldn't recover.

Holy Family carried that offensive momentum into a tougher, follow-up game against Golden, which saw the Demons gain a lead early and continue to slowly build upon it until — again — midway through the fourth.

Facing a 5-3 deficit at the midway point, the Tigers kicked their offense back into gear. Seifarth began the bottom of the inning by scoring on an error, and Kuszak quickly took advantage. His double sent junior left fielder Rylan Cooney home. Three batters later, senior center fielder Catcher Gladysh got in on the fun with two RBIS through his own double.

staff. I told them if there's ever a team that I've coached that has enough to get through what they're facing, it's them."

The Cougars (15-11) opened the game with three consecutive hits off ace Noah Scott, scoring three in the frame. Broomfield (24-2) chased from there.

Blackmon's two-run single in the bottom of the first cut the deficit to 3-2. But the Eagles left the

From that point on, Holy Family's defense stunted the Demons fully, but Cooney decided to add an insurance RBI base hit in the bottom of the fifth to draw the final score to 8-5.

The Tigers will look to make it a perfect 3-0 weekend against No. 6 Severance at 2:30 p.m. at the University of Colorado-colorado Springs on Saturday. A win would automatically put them in the finals on June 3.

Eaton then walked Josh Stirm before allowing Drew Kraft to send another runner home and extend Peak to Peak's lead to 4-0.

Eaton went in shutdown mode from there.

The Fighting Reds netted two runs in the bottom of that first inning and then kept the Pumas scoreless through the next two innings thanks to tighter defense all around. In the meantime, they scored 15 runs in the second and added three more in the bottom of the third to take a 20-4 advantage heading into the top of the fourth.

In that final half-inning, Stirm scored on a groundout from Brenden Hartley, but it wasn't enough to stave off the run-rule that loomed after the second inning. Now, the Pumas will try to keep their postseason alive on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. when they go head-to-head with No. 4 Coal Ridge.

Coal Ridge suffered an 11-2 loss to No. 5 Montezuma-cortez, which now has the tall task of playing Eaton. If the Pumas can pull one over on Coal Ridge, they'll play again at 11:30 a.m. If not, their season is over.

When pressed about that fact, Gilmore said "that's baseball."

"I'm not one to make excuses but we hit more balls at people than I can remember doing in a really long time," he said. "Some days that's going to happen and today was one of those days."

Back at All-star Park, Broomfield will face No. 13 Mountain Vista Saturday with its season on the line.