The Rifle Bears varsity softball team sent off their seniors on the right note on Thursday night. 

The Cedaredge Bruins traveled south to Rifle to play two games against their familial mascot foe, though the home team didn’t treat them too kindly. 

The Bears took both games of the doubleheader against a league opponent and flipped a two-game losing skid into the start of a streak over four hours. 

The Bears outscored the Bruins 20-1 through 11 innings of softball on Thursday night, something Rifle head coach Troy Phillips said was an extremely positive sign. 

“We haven’t been playing as well as I thought we are capable of, but today, they really showed who they are,” he said after the game. “The girls really came together and played one of the best days they’ve had this year. This is the team I know we have.”

Rifle took the first game 12-0 in four innings, then reset and won the nightcap 8-1. The Bears entered the bottom of the third inning of the first game with a 1-0 lead, giving Phillips flashbacks of some previous games. Rifle then exploded for 11 runs in the bottom of the third and scored 19 runs over the next seven innings. 

“We have had a lot of games recently where we’re just one clutch hit away from exploding, and just couldn’t quite get through,” Phillips said. “We finally got that hit in the third inning of the first game, and it just kept going.”

With two outs in the bottom of the first of game two, the Bears loaded the bases and cashed all of the runs in thanks to five straight wild pitches and some key swings before and after. It felt as though the Bears’ offense became a runaway train after the third inning of game one. The final of game two was 8-1. 

Although the Bears entered the game leading in the 4A/3A Western Slope South League, the Bruins entered the doubleheader with a better record. 

“It was a big matchup because they were 10-5 and are one of the better teams in our league,” Phillips said. “It turned out really well for us today, and it was really cool to send our seniors out of their last home games with a couple of wins.”

Standout Rifle sophomore starting pitcher Gia Keithley helped make her older teammates’ senior night memorable. She pitched all but one inning of the doubleheader and, over 10 innings, struck out six, allowed one unearned run, and allowed just three runners to reach third base. 

With just four games remaining in the regular season, Keithley’s performance might have been the most encouraging sign of the doubleheader sweep to Phillips. 

“She has been trying to work through some difficulties with control, and I was really excited about the way she went at every batter today,” he said. “It really seemed like she got back to where she was early in the season. It was really fun watching her today.”

To finish out their pursuit of a league title, the Bears will need to lean on their ace. Keithley has thrown 75.1 innings during the 2026 season, allowing just 67 hits and recording 83 strikeouts. According to MaxPreps, opponents have hit just .211 against Keithley in 2026. 

The Bears have a chance to lock up their league title on Monday when they travel down to the Four Corners area to take on the 4A/3A WSL No. 2-ranked team, the Montezuma-Cortez Panthers. 

The top two teams will face off twice on Monday to decide the division crown, before the Bears play two in Meeker on Oct. 8 to close out the season.