Coal Ridge Titans rally from big second-game deficit to beat Roaring Fork Rams

Roaring Fork grand slam doesn’t keep Coal Ridge from win

By Jeff Caspersen
Post Independent Staff
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado
April 6, 2008

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RIFLE, Colorado — Jake Kinney’s second-inning grand slam knocked Coal Ridge down, but not out.

The Titans, hosting a baseball doubleheader at Rifle’s Deerfield Park, rallied from a 6-0 deficit in Saturday’s nightcap to win 7-6 and salvage a split with Roaring Fork in a Class 3A Western Slope League showdown.

Braxton Jackson smashed a walk-off triple that scored the tying and go-ahead runs in the bottom of the seventh as a relaxed Coal Ridge squad relished a much-needed league win.

“I gave up a grand slam and we still won,” starting pitcher Brett Burrows said jokingly as the jovial Titans shuffled off the field.

Burrows surrendered Kinney’s grand slam — an opposite-field shot and the Ram senior’s first-ever in high school play — before handing the ball over to reliever Jake Swindell, who craftily kept Coal Ridge within striking distance.

Swindell racked up 42⁄3 innings of relief work, allowing two hits and striking out six. Jackson pitched to and retired one Ram batter in the seventh to pick up the win.

“A win’s a win,” Coal Ridge coach Luke LaBaw said. “We’ll take it. We came out flat today for the third game in a row. The boys were playing tight. They took a big step in realizing it’s just a game. We had some key hits when we needed them.”

The Titans definitely settled down after dropping Saturday’s opener 7-5, a game in which Roaring Fork’s Jake Kinney tossed a complete game. The Coal Ridge dugout resembled a comedy club, with Titan players yelling out joke after joke.

“When everybody’s serious, it’s not really as fun,” Swindell said.

Swindell’s Titans engineered their comeback with four runs on five hits in the sixth and a three-run, three-hit seventh. Swindell had a key two-run single in that sixth-inning rally and was 2-for-3 in the game.

Also coming up big at the plate for Coal Ridge were Darren Matthews (2-for-4), Zack Lyon (2-for-4), Josh Alsop (2-for-4) and Burrows (2-for-4).

Roaring Fork starting pitcher Alex Rascon, who went the distance, had a gem brewing before hitting rough water in the late innings. Through five innings, the freshman hurler had struck out four and allowed just five hits.

“Coal Ridge did a nice job of hitting the ball those last two innings,” Rams coach Steve Kinney said. “We made a few mistakes, and that was the ballgame.”

Kinney led the Rams at the plate, going 3-for-3. Arik Ziegel and Oscar Beltran added hits for Roaring Fork, which moved to 2-6 overall and in 3A Western Slope League play with the split.

Coal Ridge is now 4-5 overall and 2-3 in the 3A WSL.

Rams snag opener

Behind a complete game and 13 strikeouts from Kinney, Roaring Fork held on for a 7-5 win in Saturday’s opener.

Roaring Fork rallied for five runs in the first two innings — two in the first and three in the second — to build a big lead.

Jack Strack-Loetscher had a key first-inning double in a 3-for-4 plate performance. Kinney finished with a single and three walks and Oscar Beltran had a single.
Alsop singled and doubled to pace Coal Ridge, who saw Matthews toss five innings of two-run relief ball.