Loveland missed its first opportunity to close out its annual crosstown rivalry baseball game against Thompson Valley. The Red Wolves didn’t squander their second chance.
In a back-and-forth affair Saturday at Thompson Valley High School, the Red Wolves took a 5-4 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning, but the Eagles were able to tie the game on an RBI double from Sam Engelland and send the game to extra innings.
Loveland retook the lead in the top of the eighth on an RBI double by Easton Hoefler, and relief pitcher Wes Cheever was able to retire the Eagles in order in the bottom of the inning to preserve a 6-5 victory for the Red Wolves.
It marked the second year in a row the annual matchup was decided by one run. Loveland has now won the past five meetings between the schools.
Thompson Valley hasn’t defeated the Red Wolves since 2019. The 2020 season was cancelled because of COVID and the teams did not play during the shortened 2021 season.
“Always big games against this team,” Loveland head coach Darryl Baca said. “It doesn’t matter what the records are. That team comes and fights every time, and they showed it again today. Fortunately for us, it’s back-to-back years with a one-run win against Thompson Valley, so we’ll take it.”
For seven innings Saturday, each time one team scored, the other answered. Neither allowed the other to pull away.
The Eagles took the lead in the bottom of the first inning when Engelland singled home Cameron Denning, but the Red Wolves answered with one in the top of the second when Bennett Gransberry scored on an error.
Thompson Valley took a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the second on a two-run home run by Malachi Dougherty, but Loveland again responded, scoring two in the top of the third on a two-run single by Garrett Stilo to tie the game again at 3-3.
Loveland then took its first lead of the game, at 4-3, in the top of the fourth when Lincoln McFadden scored on a single by Caden Waldorf.
Once the Red Wolves took that one-run lead, starting pitcher Cole Underwood was able to settle in. After giving up the home run to Dougherty in the bottom of the second, he only allowed one more run over the next four innings.
“Yeah, I did,” Underwood said. “It also got a little warmer, so I was able to grip the ball better versus just having it be cold. My fingers were cold. We started off a little rocky, but we came back and it means a lot to win, especially after losing to Mountain View.”
The one run he did give up after the second inning came in the bottom of the fourth, when Thompson Valley’s Brady Johnson scored on a single by Denning to tie the game at 4-4.
Loveland then went ahead in the top of the sixth on an RBI groundout by Hoefler. The Red Wolves were two outs away from clinching the victory in the bottom of the seventh when Engelland doubled home Caleb Brandner.
Hoefler doubled home McFadden in the top of the eighth, and after giving up the tying run in the bottom of the seventh, Loveland’s Cheever retired the Eagles in order, the last two by strikeout, to end the game.
“I was thinking I’ve just got to put one out there, wait on the pitch,” Hoefler said of his game-winning hit. “I knew it was coming to me, so I just had to be ready for it and put one out there. Not much else I could do but swing the bat.”
Saturday’s matinee was a break from league play for both teams.
With the win, Loveland improved to 5-13 on the season while Thompson Valley dropped to 4-13. The Red Wolves are 2-6 in the 5A/4A Northern League while the Eagles are 4-6 in the 4A/3A Longs Peak League.
Both teams are so far down in the CHSAA Selection & Seeding Index in their respective classes that not even a late season run by either would get them into the postseason. The Red Wolves are No. 46 in Class 5A while the Eagles are No. 53 in 4A.
Both teams — the Eagles with a senior-heavy roster and the Red Wolves with four seniors among a young squad — just want to end the season on a positive note and have fun.
“We just keep doing what we’re doing,” Thompson Valley head coach Chad Raabe said. “We’re going to go out and we’re going to have fun. Especially having 12 seniors on this team, it’s like, ‘Hey, just go have fun. Enjoy it.’
“Last season of high school, you’re going to have fun, and we’ll collect the wins that we get but have fun and enjoy it and that’s how we’re going to keep going the rest of the season.”
