Eaton sophomore Gunnar Garrison, right, salutes Cooper Nider after he scored while playing Coal Ridge at Tom Roche Field in Greeley on Friday May 24, 2024. Eaton won 14-4.(Jim Rydbom/Staff Photographer)
When you’re coach Todd Hernandez and his legendary Eaton baseball program, at least two things are certain this time of year.
One: you’re going to get every opponent’s best shot, as the rest of the 3A classification scrambles to dethrone the three-time defending state champion Reds.
And two: every win is at least as meaningful as the one before, no matter how different one win may look from the next.
Case in point, Friday at University High School’s Tom Roche Field, top-seeded Eaton picked up a pair of wins that couldn’t have been any different than one another, as the Reds opened the two-weekend, double-elimination state tournament 2-0.
Facing a pair of teams that appeared bound and determined to knock Eaton off the top of the proverbial mountain, the Reds rallied in the final inning to defeat eighth-seeded Forge Christian 6-5 in the first round before, mere minutes later, immediately seizing control and never relinquishing it in a 14-4 mercy rule-shortened, second-round win against No. 5 Coal Ridge.
“It’s always going to be a grind,” Hernandez said. “We talk about it all the time: we’re going to get everybody’s best shot. Even that 14-4 win, I thought we did a nice job of just kind of grinding through it and taking it at-bat by at-bat. … Everybody was locked in and good to go.”
Despite a bit of an early-round scare, Eaton improved to 26-0 on the season — extending its state-record win streak to 67 games. The Reds powered into the third round of the championship bracket and will face a supremely familiar foe, third-seeded University (23-4) at 2 p.m. Saturday at Greeley’s Butch Butler Field.
The winner of that game will be the only team to escape the state tournament’s opening weekend undefeated and will clinch a spot in the finals June 1 back at Butch Butler.
Though Eaton accomplished exactly what it needed to in the two games Friday, the pair of victories couldn’t have been any more contrasting.
Against a longtime rival in Forge Christian (20-6) — formerly Faith Christian — the Reds built an early 3-0 lead before the Fury rallied and took a sudden 5-4 lead with a run in the top of the fifth and four more in the sixth, including a big home run by Ben McLean.
Trailing by a run heading into the bottom of the seventh, Eaton did exactly what Eaton does. The Reds eagerly waited for the slightest slip-up by their opponent, then they pounced.
Forge Christian had a pair of defensive miscues to allow Eaton to tie the game. Then, Reds senior Kade Gentry scored the winning run on a walk-off wild pitch.
“The team showed a lot of grit,” Gentry said. “It’s not just one individual on this team. It’s every single guy. … But that was exciting. It was awesome.”
As dominant as Eaton has been during its stretch of three consecutive state titles, state tournament scares are hardly anything new to the battle-tested Reds.
They rallied from behind to beat Colorado Academy during mostly dominant state tournament campaigns the past three years.
The excitement and momentum from the final stages of Eaton’s first-round win Friday seemed to carry right on over to its second-round game mere moments later.
This time around, the Reds had zero need for a late-game rally.
In fact, the game was largely decided in the opening minutes, as Eaton scored five runs in the first inning and tacked on insurance runs in all but one inning afterward.
“We were firing on all cylinders,” said Reds senior Garrett Garrison, who went 3 for 4 with four RBI and a double in Game 2. “We were making plays, hitting balls, we were putting things together. It came from that first game when we had to really unite as a team and be one and be there for each other.”
— Bobby Fernandez covers high school sports for the Greeley Tribune. Reach him at (970) 392-4478, by email at…
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