Kevin Johnson used to cut hay in the field where the Severance baseball diamond now stands.
After the Silver Knights’ 1-0 win over Golden on Saturday, the Severance head coach and lifelong resident will hang the school’s first state championship banner at that field — just four years after the opening of the school.
Severance senior right-hander Mason Bright pitched a complete game shutout, and the Silver Knights manufactured the one run they needed to beat a talented and deep Golden team vying for its first crown in 20 years at the Rawlings Sports Complex at CSU-Pueblo.
“The trophy is going to look good up in that empty trophy case, that’s for sure,” Bright said. “We’ve been grinding, and we’ve put in a lot of time together to get to this goal. We had the desire to get here, and the ability, and the motivation. It all paid off.”
Senior right-hander Braeden McCarroll did everything he could to keep the Demons in the game, but Golden’s offense couldn’t break through. The Demons mustered just four hits off Bright, who also pitched six shutout innings in the regional championship against Thomas Jefferson and got the win in the Silver Knights’ state tournament opener against Cheyenne Mountain.
The lone run in the game came in the second inning, when senior right fielder Joe Tamburro reached base by fielder’s choice and then eventually scored on a passed ball.
That was all the buffer that Bright needed while keeping the Demons off-balance with a high-80s fastball, slider (78-79 mph) and changeup (80-81). Bright, who came into the game with a team-best .512 average, will pitch and hit at UNC.
“I was confident in all of my pitches,” Bright said. “They couldn’t hit my slider, and then when they went looking slider, I was able to blow it by them.”
Severance, the Longs Peak League champions, finished 23-6 while Golden, the 4A Jeffco League champions, finished 25-6.
Silver Knights third baseman/right-hander Nolan Hertzke, the team’s other senior pillar who is headed to Kansas City Kansas Community College, believes the SHS program is just getting going. Only wrestler Colby Runner had won a state title as a Severance Silver Knight before Saturday’s feat.
“I hope we leave a legacy of the hard work that gets it done,” Hertzke said. “It can show other future teams here, and other new programs, that anything is possible no matter if you’re a new school. This won’t be the last hearing from (Severance baseball).”
