Holy Family surges in Class 4A
Tigers looking to earn another week of play
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.
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.