LONGMONT — Silver Creek coach Brad Steward has a lot of confidence in his closing pitcher, Zander Storz — even after his rough outing two days ago.
He wants to get him more time in the lineup, too.
On Wednesday afternoon at their home field, the hard-to-miss, 6-foot-5 senior was front and center in the Raptors’ 7-3 win over Holy Family.
He paid his coach back with a bit of heads-up baserunning: turning the third-base corner in stride — as the catcher misfired back to the pitcher — to score a second run on Jake Oster’s go-ahead RBI walk in Silver Creek’s four-run sixth inning.
Then he finished things on the mound. After allowing five runs — four earned — in Monday’s five-inning, 12-2 loss to the Tigers, he came in with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh, inducing a flyout before freezing Holy Family’s final batter on the game-ending punch-out.
“He’s a four-year varsity guy for us who’s kind of bought his time,” Steward said. “He contributed in limited roles the last three years, but this year, one of his goals was to not just be a pitcher. And for us not to give up on him.”
After Silver Creek (4-4, 2-1 5A/4A NCAC) talked about the importance of being more aggressive following losses in three of its past four games, junior shortstop Nate Spiegel led the charge from the plate, delivering the first three-hit game of his high school career.
He stood nearby as Jake Bator scored on a passed ball to add to the lead in the sixth. Then, he brought home Oster with his third single of the game to push the lead to four.
The Raptors had gone out to a 3-0 lead earlier, thanks in part to a strong outing from right-hander Nolan Gaccetta. The Tigers (7-1-1, 3-1), though, rallied, tying things up in a two-run sixth before, finally, folding with the tying runner at the plate in the seventh.
It ended Holy Family’s four-game winning streak over the Raptors, and a run of 19 straight wins in the Northern Colorado Athletics Conference.
“This is kind of one of the first times the team has really been challenged (this season),” Holy Family coach Marc Cowell said — well, aside from the Tigers’ 7-7 tie against Palisade on March 22. “This was good for us from the standpoint of, ‘What’s our mental toughness? What’s our mental makeup?’”
Holy Family came into the day as one of the top-scoring offenses in 4A, averaging 11 runs per game. But Gaccetta, following up his five-inning, 11-strikeout, shutout performance over Trinidad on Friday, kept the Tigers mostly off-kilter. The sophomore scattered five hits and three walks, allowing two runs over five frames.
On the back of a tailing slider, Gaccetta got out of jams in the first, third and fourth — stranding four runners in scoring position.
With two outs in the fifth, he allowed the Tigers’ first run by way of a single from Cole Kuszak, Holy Family’s starting pitcher. Gaccetta was pulled after allowing a leadoff hit to Finn LaVelle in the sixth.
Behind him, Quincy Deibert (2-0) was credited with the win, allowing an earned run in 1 1/3 innings. He allowed RBI singles to Xavier Vega and Rylan Cooney in the sixth, but induced a groundball double play to strand the go-ahead runner at third.
Storz took over with the bases loaded in the seventh, earning the second save of his career, per MaxPreps.
“This proved to ourselves that we can play with any team in the league. It doesn’t matter what rank they are in the state,” Storz said. “We’re a good baseball team. We got dudes who can shove, dudes who can hit. This is a big-confidence boost all around and gets us out of a bit of a rut.”
The Tigers dominated the Raptors two days ago behind ace Brady Hudson’s 11-strikeout performance. They’ll travel to Mead on Saturday following their first loss in the NCAC since 2022.
The Raptors, meanwhile, will be at home against Windsor, looking to get back above .500.
“We said we needed to win this game and we came out and strung some hits together today,” Spiegel said. “Moving forward, I think this will continue to give us confidence to where we can win through conference and really be a dominant team.”
