BOULDER — The Monarch baseball team was well aware of the epic comeback Fairview put together over the weekend.
The Coyotes figured no lead would be safe against the Knights, who rallied from 10-0 deficit to record a wild 15-14 win against Fossil Ridge on Saturday. Yet Monarch put together an impressive comeback of its own on that same day, and the Coyotes did not flinch on Tuesday when Fairview stormed back after Monarch’s impressive opening salvo.
Once the wild affair ended it was Monarch that was left standing, as the Coyotes scored the final five runs of the game to outlast the host Knights for a 12-9 victory in Front Range League play.
Monarch’s victory secured a Class 5A playoff berth for the Coyotes out of the convoluted Front Range League standings. Fairview, still alive in the postseason picture prior to the game by only the slimmest of margins, saw its faint postseason hopes come to an end.
“We’ll definitely take a win against Fairview. They’re one of our rivals and both teams came out to play,” said Monarch coach Scott Weiss, whose club has won five of its past six games.
“Watching Fairview come back from a 10-0 lead on Saturday, we knew when we got out to a lead that they weren’t going to quit. They came back and gave us a game. The last two games, our team has come back and battled when we were down. That’s a good thing as you’re moving toward the playoffs.”
Monarch (13-5, 7-3 Front Range League) was coming off a seventh-inning rally on Saturday during which the Coyotes scored six runs in the top of the seventh to record a victory at Greeley West, and the Coyotes seemingly carried that momentum into the matchup at Fairview.
The Coyotes jumped out to a 7-1 lead against Fairview starting pitcher Ryan Madden, who allowed eight hits, three walks, and hit one batter in only 11/3 innings. Fairview, however, roared back in the fourth, taking advantage of three Monarch errors in what Weiss described as “our worst inning of the year.”
Fairview’s Tim Ryan capped the seven-run fourth with a two-run double that gave the Knights (8-9, 4-6) their first lead at 9-7.
“Certainly if we started better we’d be more happy, but we’re happy that we don’t give up,” Fairview coach Rick Harig said. “You have to give them the credit. They stayed level-headed and didn’t let the momentum hurt them, even though it could have at that time.”
Monarch tied the game at 9-9 by scoring a pair of unearned runs in the fifth, evening the score on an RBI single by Cole Maltese. The Coyotes recaptured the lead for good on an RBI bloop single by Brian Wood in the sixth before Maltese, one of four Monarch players to post two RBIs, provided some breathing room with a solo home run in the seventh.
“Any way we can get a win, I’ll take it,” Maltese said. “At the beginning, we were swinging the sticks. But they’re a good team and they know how to hit the ball. We battled back and were able to pull it out in the end.”
Follow Pat Rooney on Twitter: @prooney07
Monarch 12, Fairview 9
At Fairview H.S.
Monarch (13-3, 7-3) 430 021 2 — 12 15 3
Fairview (8-9, 4-6) 110 700 0 — 9 15 5
W — Beswick (5-2). L — Stoorman (2-4)
Monarch (ab-r-h-rbi) — Przedpelski 4-1-1-0, Manders 4-2-1-0, Maltese 4-3-3-2, Soole 5-2-2-2, Norton 2-2-2-2, Blazon 5-0-3-2, Witte 0-1-0-0, Clary 4-1-2-1, Good 4-0-0-0, Wood 3-0-1-1. Totals 35-12-15-10. 2B — Clary. 3B — Soole, Clary. HR — Maltese (none on in 7th).
Fairview (ab-r-h-rbi) — Frazier 4-2-3-1, Blair 4-0-0-0, J. Madden 3-1-2-2, Hernden 1-0-0-0, DeSantis 4-1-2-1, Hill 3-2-1-1, Jeanette 4-1-1-0, R. Madden 1-0-0-0, Ryan 4-1-2-2, Casey 4-0-2-0, Feauto 4-1-2-1. Totals 36-9-15-8. 2B — DeSantis 2, Frazier, Ryan. 3B — J. Madden. SB — Frazier.
Monarch (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) — Blazon 3.2-11-8-6-0-5; Beswick 1.1-3-1-1-0-0; Norton 2-1-0-0-0-1.
Fairview (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) — R. Madden 1.1-8-7-6-3-0; Katz 3.2-3-2-0-1-4; Stoorman 2-4-3-3-1-1.
