Columbine amongst bracket-busters at Colorado state softball

There are tall tasks and then seemingly inconceivable tasks, such as the one that faced the Columbine (Littleton) softball team last Saturday.

The Rebels had to knock off perennial power Legacy (Broomfield) to get into the state tournament, but there was some history working against them. For one, Legacy had won six of the past seven Class 5A state titles and hadn't missed the state tourney since 2002.

Couple that with the fact that Legacy, the No. 2 seed in regionals, had already blanked No. 31 Columbine 6-0 earlier in the day. For those who already penciled Legacy in, hopefully you had good erasers.

Columbine not only did the unthinkable. The Rebels, who barely sneaked in to regionals, did it dramatically with an 8-0 whitewash of the Lightning, getting a grand slam from Carly Perry to help punch their ticket to state for the first time since 2008. The state tournament begins for all three classifications Friday at the Aurora Sports Park.

"Legacy obviously has a rich softball tradition and it was a great win for our program to beat an opponent of that caliber," Columbine coach Brooks Roybal said. "In our loss to Legacy, we gave up six runs in the first three innings and then they did not score the last four innings."

That was largely due to sophomore pitcher Jennifer Romero, who blanked the Lightning in the final four innings, threw four more innings of scoreless relief to pick up the win against Cherokee Trail (Aurora), then shut out the Lightning in the Rebels' clincher. Perry had three homers on the day and Rachel Mauro and Kasey Cruz one apiece. Mauro's was a slam in the 11-7 win against Cherokee Trail.

Columbine, which enters state as the No. 14 seed, will open against No. 3 Brighton.

"We want to play the best teams and Brighton definitely is one of those teams," Roybal said. "We have a couple of big wins this season, including our win against Brighton in the opening game of the Dave Sanders Tournament, so we do believe that our girls can beat anyone."

While top-seeded Fossil Ridge (Fort Collins) and No. 2 Dakota Ridge (Littleton) join Brighton in the list of favorites, along with Continental League powers Castle View (Castle Rock) and 2013 state runner-up Legend (Parker), a few others also busted their way into the state bracket.

Douglas County (Castle Rock), the No. 18 seed in regionals, also blanked Legacy to become the Region 8 champs. The Huskies' 7-0 win in the regional title game forced Legacy to play the playback against Columbine.

No. 24 Pine Creek (Colorado Springs), No. 28 Horizon (Thornton) and No. 29 Arvada West also pulled off upsets along the way and are in the state bracket.

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There weren't as many pronounced upsets in the Class 4A bracket, where top-seeded Frederick (21-0) remains a key favorite, along with No. 2 Valor Christian (20-1), No. 3 Pueblo West (17-4), and fourth-seeded Wheat Ridge (16-5), the defending state champ.

Frederick was entrenched in a tight one with Falcon in the Region 1 title game, in which the Falcons led 4-3 into the bottom of the fifth. But the Warriors rallied for a 7-4 win and sophomore pitcher Alicia Hernandez remained unbeaten at 20-0.

"With some of the close games we've had throughout the year, we've become a sixth- or seventh-inning team," Frederick coach Roger Dufour said. "With this group, they just have to keep their heads, stay focused and believe in themselves, and I think they can get it done."

As far as the bracket busters, five teams that were on the outside looking in during regionals clawed their way to state: No. 18 Windsor, No. 20 Thompson Valley (Loveland), No. 24 Air Academy (US Air Force Academy), No. 26 Mead (Longmont) and No. 27 D'Evelyn (Denver).

All pulled off dramatics against a higher seed, with Air Academy's 7-5 upset of No. 8 Mountain View (Loveland) and D'Evelyn's opening 5-4 defeat of Vista Ridge (Colorado Springs) standing out. Of note, D'Evelyn (8-14), which sneaked in at No. 16 and will open against Frederick, is the lone team to defeat No. 2 Valor Christian (Highlands Ranch) this season.

Thompson Valley knocked out 2012 champ Pueblo East by defeating the No. 13 hosts twice on Saturday. TV landed the No. 14 seed and will open against Pueblo West.

In Class 3A, where the hierarchy seems to be firmly established, not a single lower seed won a game in the regional round. Unlike the big-school 32-team regional brackets, 3A's featured only 18, with the top six receiving byes.

The big storyline entering state is whether Strasburg, with a 49-game win streak in tow, can capture its third straight title. Freshman pitcher Dakota Stotyn is 17-0 with an 0.98 ERA for the Indians.

No. 2 seed Valley (Gilcrest), which won the two titles before Strasburg's run, is the top challenger. Vikings pitcher Bridgette Hutton is 17-3 with an 0.24 ERA and is batting .623 with five home runs and 30 RBI.

Those two, along with No. 3 La Junta and No. 4 Sterling, will receive byes into the quarterfinals.

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