Walk-off win sends Coal Ridge baseball team to 3A state semifinals for first time

With its back to the wall and facing elimination at the Class 3A state tournament, the Coal Ridge High School baseball team dug deep and clawed back to win a thrilling walk-off victory over The Classical Academy, 7-6, and advance to the 3A Final Four for the first time in school history.

Coal Ridge entered the game with one win and one loss in the double-elimination tournament. On Friday, the Titans got off to an excellent start with an 11-0 win over Resurrection Christian on a stellar one-hitter by junior ace Ben Simons. Senior Alexis Serna provided a lot of offensive firepower, going 4-4 and driving in five runs.

In their next game against Eaton, winner of the past three 3A titles, things fell apart. Eaton took advantage of six Titans’ errors and seven unearned runs to dominate in a 14-4 win, setting the stage for Saturday’s elimination game against The Classical Academy.

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Things started off well enough for Coal Ridge in the bottom of the first when sophomore outfielder George Roberts blasted a two-run home run over the left-field wall. However, the euphoria only lasted a half-inning. Aided by four walks, three hits and two wild pitches, the Classical Academy rallied with two outs to take the lead, 6-2. Coal Ridge brought in Jakson Slade on the mound to get the last out of the inning with a strikeout. Those were the only runs TCA would score as the Titans got up, dusted themselves off and went back to work.

In the bottom of the second inning, freshman second baseman Maddix Olivas doubled home Dylan Miller, who had led off with a walk. In the bottom of the third, Simons homered to right with one out to make it a two-run ballgame, 6-4.

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Then, Titans’ pitcher Slade took over. It was three up, three down for TCA in its half of the third, fourth and fifth innings. In the top of the sixth, Slade gave up a two-out single before getting the next batter on a groundout to end the inning.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Titans put one more on the board. With one out, Slade was hit by a pitch to get on base. Helped by a TCA wild pitch and pitcher balk, Slade found himself on third with two outs. Senior catcher Logan Simpson then singled to right field, sending Slade home and making it a one-run game.

In the top of the seventh, TCA tried to widen the lead when Slade gave up a lead-off single, followed by the next batter getting on base via an infield error.

But that would be TCA’s last gasp. Slade got the next batter to fly out to Roberts in right, picked off the runner on first, and got the fourth TCA batter to ground out to end the inning. The Titans were down to their last three outs of a remarkable season.

Lead-off batter Roberts was hit by a pitch to reach first. Simons followed that up with a walk, giving Coal Ridge two on with no outs. Roberts then advanced to third on a wild pitch and with no outs, runners on the corner, junior third baseman Logan Harlow knocked in Roberts with his second hit of the game to tie the score. The next batter, Houston fouls off a bunt and both runners advance on a wild pitch.

Then, with two on, no outs and a full count on the batter, another wild pitch brings in Simons to score the winning run, eliminating TCA, 7-6.

Slade earned the win for Coal Ridge, giving up no runs and only allowing two hits in 5.1 innings of work.

Coal Ridge continues its quest of winning a state championship for the first time in school history this coming Friday. The Titans will first need to beat Resurrection Christian in a rematch (10 a.m., Friday) and then University in the semifinals (12:30 p.m. Friday) to advance to the finals. From there, Eaton is awaiting at 10 a.m. Saturday.