In what would be described by head coach Chris Dennis as the Colorado Rage 12U team showing up “flat” on Saturday, was made up by their performance on Sunday.
After battling through two games on Saturday of the CABA Memorial Day Tournament and finishing 1-1, the Colorado Rage were matched up with the South Jeffco Rebels in single elimination bracket play. Jack Reeves toed the rubber for the Rage in the early morning 8am start time. The Rage got out to an early start scoring two runs in the first inning, and adding five more in the second. The Rebels were unable to catch up as the Rage added one run each in the third and fourth innings. Reeves pitched three solid innings allowing 1 run on 4 hits. Owen Millradt came in relief for the final two innings allowing 1 run on 2 hits as the Colorado Rage cruised to a 10-2 victory in 5 innings sending the Rage to the bracket championship game.
In the championship game, the Rage 12U faced off against Elite Baseball. Micah McPhail got the start for the Rage on the mound. Elite came out fast scoring two quick runs in the top half of the first, but the Rage answered back by putting up three runs of their own in the bottom half. McPhail then settled in posting zero’s in the second and third innings, while the Rage offense got hot posting four runs in the second inning, and two more in the third. Elite pushed one more run across in the fourth, and the Rage answered with two more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. As the mercy rule was looming, Elites offense woke up and made it a game again by posting three runs in the fifth inning and shutting down the Rage offense in the bottom half. Elite carried their offensive momentum into the sixth inning by putting up five more runs tying the game. The Rage were unable to push a run across in the bottom of the sixth inning forcing an extra frame with the California Tie-Break system in place (inning starts with a runner on 2nd base and 1 out). Elite’s bats stayed hot as they scored three runs in the seventh inning. With Chance Mathews as the runner on second base, Kyler Vaughn was hit by the first pitch he saw of his at bat. As Micah McPhail came to the plate, Vaughn and Mathews advanced to second and third on a wild pitch. On a 1-0 pitch, McPhail hit a towering fly ball to left field for a triple scoring Mathews and Vaughn and putting the tying run 70 feet away. Jack Reeves hits a hard ground ball on the first pitch he sees for a single past the first baseman tying the game at 14. Jack Boyko follows Reeves with a single of his own bringing Kayden Williams to the plate. Williams was down 0-2 in the count when the Elite pitcher threw a wild pitch to advance Reeves to third and Boyko to second. After working the count to 3-2, Williams puts the ball in play on a swinging bunt and Elite is unable to make the play at home plate allowing Reeves to score the game winning run in walk off fashion 15-14.
This win marks the first tournament championship in Colorado Rage Baseball Organization history. The Rage finished with 15 runs on 14 hits and were able to overcome 5 errors on defense.