AURORA – We’ve all had up-and-down days. Riverdale Ridge’s Aubree Davis had a down-and-really-up day Oct. 21 to open up the state 4A softball tournament.

She was the starting pitcher in the Ravens’ opener against Pueblo County. Davis didn’t make it out of the first inning. PCHS also had a 5-0 lead when RRHS changed pitchers.

Fast-forward a couple of hours and six innings. Davis’ walk-off home run gave RRHS an 8-6 win and sent the Ravens into the quarterfinals.

“I was feeling a little excitement,” she said. “That was the pivotal moment in the game. I’m glad it happened. I  don’t know what kind of a pitch it was. But I know I hit it far.”

Sophia Strasia had a base hit and an RBI for Pueblo County. Malaya Parlett had two base hits and drove in a run.

“Honestly, we started off the first inning was a little rocky. But it was just a team effort,” Davis said. “I couldn’t have done what I did if it wasn’t for Jaenna (Jaenna Sandoval) and Neila (Neila Lucero) getting on base. We came together. Brynn stepped up on the mound. And helping me out.”

Trifecta comes up short

A familiar opponent was waiting in the quarterfinals. Frederick and the Ravens are in the same conference and played twice earlier this season. RRHS won them both.

But not this time.

Frederick scored five unearned runs in the fourth inning and beat Riverdale Ridge 10-6. Davis had a base hit and two of the RBIs. Olivia Vargas had an RBI, and Sandoval and Lucero had a base hit and drove in a run. Madyson Ortiz had two hits.

Carlie Nagy had three hits and three RBIs for the golden Eagles. Lani Davis added two hits and an RBI.

“A lot of things went right in the second game. We all had our moments,” Davis said. “We did our jobs,. In the end, it was little things we couldn’t execute. It happens to everybody. It’s a game of failure.”

“I don’t have any answers. I have never seen us play that poorly,” Garza said. “I don’t know why we couldn’t make routine plays. Our pitcher didn’t have her best stuff. We had a good week of practice. The kids worked hard. For some reason, we just didn’t have the ‘it’ factor today. I’m really, really confused as to why we played that way.”

Summary

RRHS finished with a record of 23-4. The Ravens lose just one starter to graduation.

“At the end of the day, we didn’t play well. But I’m proud of the girls and how they competed, despite the fact we didn’t come with our ‘A’ game,” Garza said. ‘We found a way to win the first game against a very scrappy team. We just weren’t the same today. We won a lot of games with our pitchers. When teams started to put the ball in play, we freaked out. We’re not used to it.”

Davis plans to play in college next year. She’s not sure where yet.

“The atmosphere we had throughout the entire day was great. When we were down at times, we picked each other up. We managed to do our jobs. We were there for each other,” Davis said. “As for me, I liked hitting today.”