Golden baseball takes driver’s seat in 4A Je co

BY DENNIS PLEUSS JEFFCO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

EVERGREEN — It was a playogame atmosphere May 5 on Evergreen High School’s baseball eld.

e Class 4A Je co League rivalry between Golden and Evergreen was renewed with a huge conference game. e Demons and Cougars were the only two teams in 4A Je co that hadn’t dropped a league game yet.

When the dust settled, Golden — No. 5 in the CHSAANow.com 4A rankings — captured its 13th straight victory with a 8-4 win over the Cougars.

“I didn’t have to do much to get them ready,” Golden coach Jackie McBroom said of his team playing on the road against Evergreen, who was on an 8-game winning streak coming in. “ ey were ready to play baseball right out of the gate. ey knew what was in the line.” e Demons jumped out early with a 5-run top of the second inning that was started by the bottom half of the line-up. Junior Jacob Dehm had a one-out single and senior Daine Hart followed up with a 2-run home run from his seven-hole spot to give Golden an early 2-0 lead.

Golden (17-4, 7-0 in league) took a 1-game lead over Evergreen (13-5, 6-1) and Green Mountain (14-7, 6-1) in the conference standings with two league games remaining this week.

“It was just a great inning with a bunch of energy,” Hart said of the 5-run fourth inning that included his 2-run home run to start the scoring.

“I came up with an approach. I got a good ball and just took it.”

Hart took it over the left eld fence for his rst home run of the season.

“Daine had a huge hit,” McBroom said of the 2-run home run. “I’m proud for him. He is a senior who had been grinding for a long time and ghting for playing time. He has gotten that opportunity and has de nitely made the most of it.” e Demons kept it going with sophomore Sawyer Brinkman, junior Kohei Shimada and senior Hayden Carbone crossing the plate while Evergreen starting pitcher Ryan Cook was touched up for four hits.

“It de ntely helps when the bot- tom-half of your line-up jump starts you in the second inning,” McBroom said. “It makes it easier for Laif on the mound pitching with a lead.”

Golden tacked a run on in the third and fth inning to pushed the lead up to 7-0 with the Demons’ ace Laif Palmer cruising on the mound having given up just three hits through fth innings.

However, Evergreen came to life in the bottom of the sixth inning taking advantage of a the rst walk by Palmer, along with two Demon errors. Evergreen senior Augie Webre ripped a 3-run home run for the big blow to cut the Demons’ lead to 7-4 before Palmer could get out of the inning.

“ at bottom of the sixth inning was tough. ey hit the home run, but we still had a 3-run lead,” Palmer said. “I knew I had been dealing all game and I could hold them. I knew I was going to shut it down in the seventh.”

Palmer got a shot in the arm by fellow senior Jaydon Hord before taking the mound in the bottom of seventh inning. Hord hit a towering solo home run with two outs in the top of the seventh inning to add an insurance run and grab the momentum back to the Demons.

“ at was just electric,” Palmer said of Hord’s solo home run. “ at got us all red up and got me ready to go out there and K three in row. at was a big moment that we needed.” e next and likely nal start of the regular season for Palmer will come at home ursday, May 11, against Green Mountain where the league title could be decided in the conference and regular-season nale for the Demons.

Palmer struck out the side in the bottom of the seventh inning to nish with 13 strikeouts. It was the Oregon State University-commit’s fth straight win and sixth double-digit strikeout game of the season.

“We are just going to focus in on the rest of league and the rest of the regular season,” Palmer said. “We want to win out and show that there is no one better than us going into playo s. I think we all believe that.”

Dennis Pleuss is the sports information director for Je co Public Schools. For more Je co coverage, go to CHSAANow.com.