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Titans take down visiting Cardinals

Jeff Caspersen
Post Independent Staff
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado
Kelley Cox Post Independent
ALL |

PEACH VALLEY, Colorado – Danny Petrie and his fellow Coal Ridge baseball coaches keep telling their players they’re capable of winning games.

On Tuesday, the Titans proved their coaches right.

Mixing discipline at the plate with some clutch hitting, Coal Ridge avenged a 14-7 loss earlier in the season to Grand Valley with a 12-4 win over the Cardinals in Peach Valley.



“This helps a lot,” said Petrie, whose squad improved to 3-10 on the season. “This gives them the confidence they needed. We’ve been telling them all along they were capable of doing this and to just keep playing the way we were. They were playing well. They just needed to get those bats going a little bit.”

Grand Valley’s pitching did help the Titans’ cause considerably, issuing 13 walks and hitting four batters.



“There’s no defense for a walk,” Cardinals coach Jacob Gray said. “You’ve got to challenge them, let them hit, attack the zone. You have to let your defense work.”

Coal Ridge plated three runs in the first inning.

Two scored on wild pitches and Hunter Hasenberg doubled home Ryan Blackard, who tripled an at-bat earlier.

The score would hold until Grand Valley rallied for four runs in the third. Back-to-back-to-back RBI singles by Trent Reidle, Stephan Padilla and Jake White were the highlights of the frame.

Coal Ridge tied it in the bottom half of the third inning, and then broke the game open with four runs apiece in the fifth and sixth innings.

After a hit-by-pitch and four straight walks in the bottom of the fifth inning, Christian Corona dropped a two-run double into short right field.

In the sixth, Austin Pace had the big hit for the Titans, driving an RBI double into the gap in left field. Cameron Cotton followed with a bloop single to plate a run.

“We stepped it up hitting today,” said Pace, a senior. “We came through when we needed to. We had a couple of rallies. We kept the count in our favor and made sure we weren’t swinging at bad pitches. Really, that’s it. We were more aggressive when we needed to be.”

Pace led Coal Ridge with two hits. Cotton, Blackard, Hasenberg and Corona each finished with one.

Hasenberg pitched the distance on the mound to claim the win. He struck out 10 along the way.

“He did awesome,” Pace said. “He had one bad inning. That happens. But he pitched through it.”

Reidle and White finished with two hits apiece for Grand Valley, which dropped to 3-12 overall. Padilla, Jose Ramirez, Zane Pfau and Wyatt Hurst had a hit apiece for the Cardinals.

jcaspersen@postindependent.com


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