Clear Creek baseball loses heartbreaker at The Academy

A sentiment often shared by coaches and players of all sports is that the scoreboard never tells the whole story.

The Clear Creek baseball’s 6-18 loss at Westminster’s The Academy was very much like that.

Up until the bottom of the fourth inning, the March 31 game was a close one.

The teams were neck-and-neck for the first few innings, and were tied at 5 going into the fourth. Clear Creek scored one run in the top of the fourth, making it 6-5.

Over the next half-hour, though, the entire atmosphere shifted like the clouds overhead, and Clear Creek’s outlook went from sunny to completely overcast in the span of 30 minutes.

The Wildcats of Westminster went absolutely feral, scoring 13 runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.

The Golddiggers struggled to get the final out, which only came after The Academy’s Aiden Steffinch hit something just short of an inside-the-park grand slam. While all the Wildcats on base made it home, the Clear Creek fielders got the ball back just in time for catcher Evan Brandt to get Steffinch out at home and end the fourth inning.

The Golddiggers got a few runners on base at the top of the fifth, but the Wildcats got their three outs before the first one could cross home plate.

After almost two-and-a-half hours of play, the teams called the game there, as they still needed to play a JV game before sunset.

The game in Westminster was the Golddiggers’ first loss of the season, and they were 2-1 heading into their April 1 game at Sheridan.

“We let it get away from us,” coach Stan Gould said of March 31 loss. “ … We made too many mental mistakes.”

Gould noted how in the first few innings, the Wildcats advanced bases and got at least one runner home because of balks, or illegal motions, made by the Clear Creek pitchers.

Still, Gould thought that up until that fourth inning, Clear Creek played really well. He especially commended the Golddiggers’ hitting, saying there was only one strikeout in the first few innings.

Junior Bode Baker agreed that the Golddiggers started the game off strong.  However, he and Gould described a snowball effect regarding the team’s mental mistakes, particularly in the fourth inning. After a couple of errors, Baker said, the Golddiggers’ defense fell apart.

Baker commended fourth-inning pitcher Joe Monseu whom he said “did well with all that happening.”

Gould wanted the team to work on its mental composure as it prepared to play at Sheridan the next day.

“Someone has to step up and stop the fire,” he continued. “Or start the fire, depending on the situation.”