Coal Ridge, Basalt fall short in baseball regionals; Rifle hosts regional Monday
Glenwood Springs Post Independent
The Coal Ridge High School baseball team was leading 3-2 going into the seventh inning of the Titans’ Class 3A regional against Kent Denver on Sunday afternoon in Eaton before giving up two runs to the Sun Devils in the bottom half to take the 4-3 loss, ending their season.
Coal Ridge, seeded 17th, scored two in the second inning and one in the fifth as freshman pitcher Ben Simons held the No. 16 Sun Devils to two runs through six innings before giving up the tying and go-ahead runs. He had 11 strikeouts on the day.
Sophomore Austin Price had 2 RBI for the Titans, and freshman Jakson Slade was 1-for-1 at the plate with an RBI.
Coal Ridge finishes the season at 16-8. It was the final game in a Titans’ jersey for seniors Nolan Simpson and Boden Robbins.
In another 3A regional playoff game Sunday involving an area team, No. 21 Basalt fell to No. 12 Resurrection Christian 12-2, also on the road, at Brush. BHS finishes the season 14-10 overall, coming up short of advancing to the state tournament for the second consecutive spring.
Meanwhile, Rifle High School’s Class 4A Region 8 baseball playoff games are rescheduled for Monday in Rifle following a weekend snowstorm that kept the visiting teams from traveling to play as originally scheduled on Saturday.
The Bears (19-4) come in as the No. 2 overall seed, playing No. 31 Evergreen (13-10) at 10 a.m. Monday at Rifle’s Deerfield Park. That will be followed by the No. 15 D’Evelyn (15-8) and No. 18 Northridge (14-9) game at 12:30 p.m., and the two winners will meet at 3 p.m. for the right to advance to the eight-team 4A state tournament later this week.
Rifle concluded the regular season as the runner-up in the 4A Western Slope League to overall No. 1 seed Palisade, which hosted one of the eight regional playoffs on Saturday.
The Bulldogs (23-2) won their opener 10-0 over No. 32 Aurora Central, and hammered No. 17 Falcon 13-3 to advance to the round of eight.
Basalt High School softball coach seeks training for her service dog after diagnosis
About a year ago, Stolley got Georgia, the golden doodle, with the intent of training her to be a psychological support dog. Stolley had panic attacks and wanted Georgia to be able to alert her before they set in.
