Continental rivalry flourishing in 5A

Paul Willis, Special to the News

Thursday, May 18, 2006

If the rematch is anything like the previous two meetings, this could be an epic battle.

Mountain Vista and Chaparral, which meet at noon Friday in an elimination game of the Class 5A baseball Championship Series at All City Field, don't have a long-standing rivalry. But the Continental League squads certainly are building one of an intense nature.

On April 10, Mountain Vista defeated the Wolverines 1-0 in a pitching duel that featured the Golden Eagles' Joe Allison and Chaparral's Dave McKnight. Mountain Vista scored an unearned run in the fifth to claim the victory.

That game might have paled in comparison to last season's contest, won 7-6 by Chaparral in 16 innings.

"The best part about playing them is they force you to bring your best," Mountain Vista coach Keith Wahl said of Chaparral. "They force you to bring your best every inning, and we've had a couple of unbelievable battles since we started playing them."

For Chaparral (18-5), this season's matchup was one of four one-run losses and Wolverines coach Steve Eaton expects another down-to-the-last-out battle.

"It's going to take another day like Friday for us where we knocked off the No. 3 seed (Monarch) and the No. 2 seed (Grandview) a half-hour later," Eaton said. "It's going to take that kind of effort."

The teams took vastly different routes to Friday's rematch. After -Friday's wins against Monarch and Grandview, Chaparral was stomped 11-1 by Columbine in five innings Saturday.

Mountain Vista (15-9), meanwhile, lost its opener Friday to defending champion Grand Junction 3-2 - and burned ace James Katsaros in the process - but staved off elimination Saturday by defeating Fort Collins 2-1 and hammering Grandview 7-2.

In the win against Fort Collins, the Golden Eagles trailed 1-0 in the bottom of the seventh but scratched out a run before getting a game-winning hit from Zach Higgins, who had failed in the same situation against Grand Junction.

"That's baseball, that's just how it works," Wahl said. "It was really an interesting game because our coaching staff, we all sat there and said that all we needed to do was get on top.

"Once we got on top, it was going to snowball. It just so happened we didn't get on top until the bottom of the 14th inning of play for us in the playoffs."

Both Wahl and Eaton, who recently have struck up a friendship, were delighted to have two Continental League teams represented in the final four.

"It's a credit to our league," Eaton said. "We talk about it a lot. Sometimes it's hard to get (the media) to come to our side with the Jeffcos and Centennials, and rightfully so, but this has really developed into a really competitive conference."

The second game, at 2:30 p.m. Friday, will feature Columbine and Monarch, with only Monarch at risk of having its season come to a close. Columbine was the lone team to make it through the first week of the double-elimination tournament unscathed and has the luxury of remaining alive with a loss.

That means the Rebels can save ace Evan Anundsen for Saturday if they choose.

If the Rebels defeat high-scoring Monarch, the Mountain Vista-Chaparral winner would have to defeat them twice Saturday to claim the championship.

"We feel great," Columbine infielder Jeff Cicchenelli said. "I feel that we're playing the best we have all year. Especially with Evan on the mound, and now he has a week to rest his arm."

The Rebels (17-7) have bashed their way through the tourney, thumping Fort Collins 6-2 and Grand Junction 15-2 the first day before the 11-1 pasting of Chaparral.

Perhaps most encouraging for the Rebels was getting a stellar pitching performance from someone other than Anundsen. Dominic Montoya struck out 10 in five innings in earning the win against Fort Collins.

"The thing that has really gotten us through the last half of the year is our pitching coach, Lee Martin," Columbine coach Chuck Gillman said. "He's got guys who were not used to pitching these type of games and he's gotten them ready. To get Dominic Montoya ready the other day (was key). Dominic grew up big time for us."

After losing to Chaparral 9-2, Monarch (20-4) stayed alive with wins Saturday against Heritage and Grand Junction. Like Mountain Vista and Chaparral, the Coyotes will have to win three in a row this weekend to earn the crown.

"It's going to be tough," said Monarch first baseman Joe Manders, who went 5-for-5 with five RBI against Grand Junction. "But we'll come back and play our style and do what we do."