BROOMFIELD — Broomfield ace Ethan Zufall isn’t just bracing himself for the workload and expectations his coach and team have for him the rest of the spring. He’s embracing it.
But there’s a fine line between shouldering heavy weight for your team and pressing too much.
The Brigham Young University commit had a strong outing against the top-ranked team in the state on Tuesday afternoon — it just wasn’t the kind of dominant performance he’d hoped for, or one the Eagles could have used, in a 6-4 loss to Fossil Ridge.
In front of his home fans, he handed things to the bullpen down 3-2 after going five innings, and then watched as the Sabercats went ahead for good in their two-run seventh.
“I got to work on staying together as a team and taking things on as a unit, and not as a ‘me’,” the junior said afterward.
Zufall said he thinks he may be trying to do too much on his own. Now he wants grow more trust in his teammates. And he wants them to have even more faith in him as well.
In his fourth appearance of the season, the righty (2.53 ERA in 19 1/3 innings in 2024) impressed with a fastball in the 90s, and a slider in the low 80s — limiting the MaxPreps and CHSAA Class 5A No. 1 team and an offense that came in averaging more than 10 runs per game.
Much of it was undone by miscues. From his defense, and from himself.
“Ethan is a really talented kid and he is going to have to shoulder the load for us out there on the hill. And he will and he wants the ball,” Broomfield coach Kale Gilmore said. “I think when he’s out there we play with confidence. Today, we let him down a little bit behind him and he made some timely mistakes on his side.”
Zufall has long welcomed being “the guy” on the mound for the Eagles (5-4, 1-1 5A Front Range League), who are high on what they can do with him as their ace this spring.
He said he wanted to be the difference against the Sabercats (8-0, 3-0), especially after his team lost to Valor Christian 24 hours earlier.
The hangdog expression across his face afterward — following an outing where he gave up three runs on two hits and four walks — though, was the look of someone contemplating where to go from here. He said it starts with building a stronger bond with his teammates.
“Obviously, I had a great leader last year in Noah Scott,” Zufall said of the 2023 Daily Camera baseball player of the year. “He really showed me the ropes and everything. And watching him pitch and the way he carried himself, I’m going to try and model myself after him.”
Earlier, Maverick Scarpella gave the Eagles a 2-1 lead with a two-run double in the fourth off Fossil Ridge starter Easton Miller (1.00 ERA). Then the Sabercats answered in the fifth off Zufall.
Ethan Moran made the Eagles pay after they dropped his popup in foul territory, tying the game on a run-scoring single. Broomfield third baseman Dane Most then threw out a runner at home for the second out of the inning, only to see the go-ahead run score on a balk.
Gilmore came out of the dugout to question it.
“I’m not saying it was right or wrong but it definitely changed the game in a negative way for us,” Gilmore said. “Baseball is a game of momentum and we definitely lost it at that point.”
Gilmore, though frustrated with the loss, gave credit to his team’s resiliency. They tied things in the sixth, thanks to run-scoring hits from Brendan Fritch and Talan Hutchings, but it didn’t hold.
The Sabercats went ahead in the seventh on Owen Morgan’s triple, and added to it on an infield error. The Eagles couldn’t muster up another rally from there, going down in order to end things.
“I just think we didn’t capitalize on our opportunities. We had plenty of them,” said University of Nebraska commit Most, who had a double and two runs scored in the loss. “It’s alright. We’re going to get back to work and flush this game. We’re going to see them again for sure and it’ll go a lot different then. I promise that.”
Broomfield is home against Legacy on Saturday.
