LAKEWOOD — Broomfield was on the ropes in the state tournament opener, then southpaw Maverick Scarpella dug deep, and DH Nate Wochner went deep.
Fossil Ridge took a 2-0 lead in the first inning at All-Star Park as Scarpella couldn’t find his command. Meanwhile, SaberCats starter Logan Hessler held Broomfield hitless for three innings.
But Scarpella, an Indian Hills Community College commit who threw a no-hitter in last week’s regional final, settled in to blank Fossil Ridge for four-plus innings with a precise combination of fastball and curveballs. And in the meantime, Wochner, a BYU pitching commit who only started batting for the Eagles midway through the season, launched a fourth-inning grand slam.
The Eagles never looked back in a 5-2 win, but then fell to Grandview 5-4 in the second round.
“Maverick has a bulldog mentality,” Broomfield head coach Kale Gilmore said. “He was the middle linebacker on the state championship football team, and that’s just his mindset. We go as Maverick goes. He’s the glue that keeps this whole thing together for us, and it’s been that way all season. I don’t know that I’ve ever coached a guy who competes harder than he does.
“… (Meanwhile, Wochner) is the best athlete in our program. I’d be surprised if BYU doesn’t get a bat in his hand when he gets there. He changes the game for us when he’s at the plate. He’s routinely come up big in big situations.”
Broomfield's Maverick Scarpella pitches against Fossil Ridge during the class 5A state baseball tournament Friday at All-Star Park in Lakewood. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)Broomfield, owner of six baseball titles with the most recent coming in 2022, has nine college commits (four Division I) on the roster and one of the deepest pitching staffs in the state. Scarpella shoved in Friday’s first game and before fellow BYU commit Ethan Zufall pitched in the second game. Wochner and NYU commit Clayton Green also highlight the Eagles’ stacked rotation.
Gilmore, Broomfield’s fourth-year head coach who won the Class 5A crown in his first season as the boss, says he sees similarities between the ’22 title team and this year’s squad.
“That ‘22 team was very offense-oriented, hit 32 home runs and had not as deep of a pitching staff,” Gilmore said. “This year it’s sort the opposite. We have the deepest pitching staff I can remember having, and it’s been our strength all year long.”
Plus, the Eagles are anchored by senior catcher Brendan Fritch. The Davidson commit entered the weekend leading Class 5A with a .583 average as well as a .649 on-base percentage.
Scarpella says the Eagles, who lost only twice in-state this season and both games were by one run, are confident they are bounce back to make a run in the consolation bracket starting on Saturday against the winner of Arvada West and Rocky Mountain.
“Once the energy gets on our side, it’s over, and that’s what happened in that first game, and it’s happened all season,” Scarpella said.
And despite Fossil Ridge’s defeat in the opening game, the SaberCats still have the talent to make noise in the consolation side of the bracket. It’s been a marquee week for the Fort Collins power, as Fossil Ridge won its first girls track title last Saturday, then its first girls soccer title on Wednesday.
Fossil Ridge baseball player Mason Griffin walks past teammate Owen Morgan, right, in the dugout before a Class 5A state baseball tournament game against the Broomfield Eagles at All-Star Park in Lakewood on Friday. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)The SaberCats are making their first Class 5A state tournament appearance after a heartbreak in the regional round last year. Fossil Ridge was the No. 1 seed in the tournament and was 22-1 entering the postseason, with their lone loss coming to eventual champion Cherry Creek. But the SaberCats came out flat and lost 5-1 to No. 32 Eaglecrest to end the season.
“We didn’t have a lot of good competition late in the year, so that playoff game was eye-opening,” Fossil Ridge head coach Marc Wagner said. “We hadn’t seen an arm or a team like that in a lot of weeks.”
Fossil Ridge took the lessons from that defeat into this season, as Wagner was determined to play a tougher schedule to prepare his team for playoff baseball.
The result was plenty of adversity for the SaberCats this spring, starting with a tough defeat to Cherry Creek in the season opener. Fossil Ridge blew a nine-run lead in the final frame, as the Bruins plated 10 runs in the seventh to win 11-10. The SaberCats also lost to fellow tournament teams in Regis Jesuit (7-3 on March 29) and Rocky Mountain (7-1 on April 15).
But Fossil Ridge was formidable enough to still win the Northern League, with a potent offense in conjunction with a unique pitching strategy. Before Friday’s loss, the SaberCats went 10-1 down the stretch by using relievers as openers to start the game before going to their top starters in senior right-hander Vedant Sharma (Harvard commit) and senior left-hander Brek Benedict (Northern Colorado).
In the regional round, Fossil Ridge avenged the ghosts from last year’s playoff with a comeback win over Ralston Valley in the opening game. The SaberCats trailed 5-2 entering the sixth, but scored two in the sixth and then two in the seventh on senior first baseman Sam Goodrum’s two-out, two-RBI walk-off single. Fossil Ridge then blanked Arapahoe 9-0 in the regional final behind a combined one-hitter by Benedict and Sharma.
“That day proved we have a different mentality and better leadership, camaraderie and togetherness on our team,” Wagner said. “They didn’t want to go through (heartbreak) again. Through their force of will, they decided they were going to win that game against Ralston Valley.”
Now, Fossil Ridge will need more “force of will” to stay alive in the tournament following Friday’s defeat to Broomfield. The SaberCats play Castle View on Saturday morning in the consolation side of the bracket. It’s now an uphill climb to make a deep run in the tournament, but not impossible, as Cherry Creek demonstrated last season while winning the title after losing in the first weekend.
In other first-round games at All City Field on the Class 5A opening weekend of state, Regis Jesuit beat Arvada West 11-5 and Cherry Creek blanked Rocky Mountain 3-0. In the second round at All City, a rematch of last season’s title game, Cherry Creek beat Regis Jesuit 4-3 to set up Saturday’s semifinal against Grandview. The winner of that game will be in the driver’s seat, advancing to next weekend’s championship, where they’ll have to be beaten twice.
Grandview topped Castle View 5-2 on Friday morning, in a game in which senior Justin Dean and junior AJ Maroni each had two RBIs. Junior right-hander Ethan Wachsmann, a Wake Forest commit, threw a complete game with one earned run.
In Grandview’s win over Broomfield, the Wolves battled back from a 3-1 deficit after the first inning. Maroni again had two RBIs, and senior right-hander Jax Pfister (a UNC commit) threw the last six innings of the game to allow Grandview to get back into the game, and then keep the lead.
Saturday’s Class 5A baseball schedule
Fossil Ridge's Mason Griffin is tagged out at home plate by Broomfield Eagles starting pitcher Maverick Scarpella in the first inning during the Class 5A state baseball tournament at All-Star Park in Lakewood on Friday. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)Castle View vs. Fossil Ridge, 1st Round consolation, 9 a.m., All-Star Park
Arvada West vs. Rocky Mountain, 1st Round consolation, 9 a.m., All-City Field
2nd Round Consolation, two games at 11:30 a.m., All-Star Park/All-City Field
Grandview vs. Cherry Creek, semifinal, 2 p.m., All-Star Park
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