Bulldogs fall to Holly in Thursday semi-final

The Bulldog baseball season came to a close Thursday afternoon at All-Star Park in Lakewood. Haxtun played in the second semi-finals match up of the day against the Holly Wildcats. The seventh seeded Bulldogs took on sixth ranked Holly following Regional wins the week before.

Game one of the day featured fellow final four finishers Merino and Nucla. That contest was all Rams as the fellow Lower Platte League opponent rolled to a 18-0 win to advance to the Championship later in the day.

Contest two featured Haxtun and Holly. By first pitch, temperatures soared into the 80s as junior pitcher Jerron Turney took the mound for the Bulldogs.

Haxtun scored one run early in the first inning and added three more in the second to take an early advantage over Holly. The Bulldogs held onto the lead until late in the fourth when the Wildcats took over with a 5-4 score on the board. Haxtun came back in the top of the sixth to even things out at five all heading into the final inning.

As it came down to the final out on the board, Holly found a way to cross home plate, taking the one-run, 6-5, win to advance to the championship match and face off with Merino for the 1A title.

Turney batted 1.000 for the day while registering two hits and one run batted in. Keegan Colglazier and Kyle Fryrear each went .500 at the plate in Lakewood last week. Both had two hits and Fryrear also tallied one RBI. Kailin Kelley and Michael Gerk each registered one RBI on the day. Colglazier had one stolen base against the Wildcats.

On the mound, Turney faced 35 batters throughout seven innings while striking out three and allowing just three walks.

The Merino Rams went on to claim the 1A title with a 10-inning, one run win over Holly.

"The game was so hard fought by our boys," Head Coach Trenton Ham said of the match up against Holly. "We put together every aspect of the game and played our best baseball. But, just because you outplay a team doesn't always mean you win and that's baseball."

This year's Bulldog baseball team finished with an overall 16-8 record and a final four finish in the 1A State playoff bracket. Haxtun went 7-3 at home, 6-3 on the road and 3-2 at neutral sites. The team will lose four seniors to graduation including Owen Knode, David Avery, Isaac Andersen and Koby Way.

"I thought throughout the season we continued to improve tremendously," Ham said. "We had a couple hot streaks as well as a few hiccups along the way. I'm definitely most proud of the way we handled failure. The struggles during the season fueled the fire when they very easily could've put out the flame."