Official Site of the Corona Angels: Prep News: GAFFIN HITS GRAND SLAM ENROUTE TO STATE TITLE WIN

This article first appeared
October 29, 2009
Metro North News
By John Rosa, Action Editor

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Championship thrice as nice for Legacy

AURORA - Shelby Babcock stood 40 feet from home plate, a determined look in her eyes. Quickly spinning the ball in her right hand, Babcock received the sign from her catcher, Buggs Torrez, and took a deep breath.

This next pitch was going to decide how Babcock, and her teammates at Legacy High School, was going to be remembered. The Lightning were leading Ralston Valley 1-0 with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning in the Class 5A state championship game Saturday afternoon at Aurora Sports Park, but the Mustangs had runners on first and third and a dangerous hitter, Lauren Biddle, at the plate.

Biddle, who propelled Ralston Valley into the championship game with a walk-off two-run single in a semifinal contest earlier in the day, hit Babcock's pitch sharply to the right side, but right at Lightning first baseman Molly Madsen, who raced to the bag, setting off a celebration that was equal parts joy and relief.

The championship was Legacy's third straight, a run of titles that hadn't been seen at the big school level since Arvada West won four straight 6A/5A titles in the mid-1990s during the infancy of the sport at the high school level.

It also cemented Babcock's place amongst the greatest prep players to ever come through the state, wrapping up a season that saw her go 23-0 with a 0.055 ERA. In 127 innings pitched, Babcock only surrendered 40 hits and one earned run while striking out 211 hitters.

During the state tournament Babcock allowed only two unearned runs and struck out 32 in 24 innings of work.

"This is the best feeling, way better than the first two," said Babcock, who was also the winning pitcher in the team's two previous state championship games. "That last game was probably the most pressure we've had all year and in the past two years.

"When it came down to the wire at the end, it made it so much more exciting. When there were people on first and third - I don't even know what was going through my head at the moment."

While Babcock has, deservedly, garnered much of the attention over the past several seasons, the championship game demonstrated how vital the players behind her have been during the championship run, playing errorless ball for the 17th time this season.

"Ralston Valley always comes out tough and I knew it would be a tough battle and it would come down to who made mistakes," Legacy coach Dawn Gaffin said. "Our goal was to have 15 errorless games this year, and we did that (Friday). I've very proud of them for that."

Not only did the Lightning not make any mistakes, they also made some remarkable defensive plays that kept Ralston Valley from putting runs on the board.

In the bottom of the first inning, with two on and two outs, Ralston Valley's Kelley Reeves hit a rocket to center field that had extra bases written all over it. But Legacy's Shae Rodriguez made a great break on the ball and reached up and grabbed it to end the threat.

Then Peyton Price made a game-saving play in the bottom of the sixth inning. With two out and runners on first and second, the Mustangs' Megan Aldrich hit a line drive in front of Price in left field. Price grabbed the ball and, in one motion, sent a perfect strike to Torrez at home plate, tagging out Ralston Valley's Jackie Sanzalone, who was attempting to score from second, preserving the scoreless tie.

And Babcock made the pitches she needed to, working her way out of several sticky situations by stranding 10 runners while striking out eight.

"Legacy played well and had a great season, but they're definitely beatable," Mustangs coach Wendy Davies said. "I thought we should have came through."

Almost fittingly, it was a Ralston Valley error that led to the game's only run. In the top of the eighth inning, Kaitlyn Mattila hit a one-out double to center, and then moved to third on Babcock's single to right. Marisa Cordova came in to run for Babcock, and promptly stole second base.

As Cordova reached second, the Mustangs' catcher tried to pick off Mattila at third by throwing behind her. But the throw sailed into left field, allowing Mattila to easily score the game-winning run.

"The second I saw (the ball) go by, I sprinted as fast as I possibly could just to get home," Mattila said. "That was one of the only opportunities (to score) we had, and that meant everything. That one run won us the game."

But even as Mattila crossed home plate, she said she realized there was more work to be done. Ralston Valley, which fell to Legacy 4-1 in last season's championship game, had the heart of its batting order coming up in the bottom of the eighth.

"Their three-four-five hitters were coming up, and we had to have tight defense," Mattila said. "We couldn't be anything less than our best."

While the state title game was as tight as could be, Legacy cruised through the first three rounds of the tournament. The Lightning opened up by shutting out Grandview 7-0 in the first round, and then downed a dangerous Arvada West team 7-1 in the quarterfinals on Friday.

In Saturday's semifinals, Legacy erupted in a 16-1 thrashing of Cherry Creek. The Lightning pounded out 19 hits (Jessica Ball and Melissa Marcovecchio had four hits each), including three homers. Rainey Gaffin had the big blast, a grand slam that provided the coup de grace to a Bruins team that had thrown a no-hitter in the previous round.

While Legacy will obviously miss Babcock, who is headed to the University of Arizona, and Mattila, they are the only two seniors on the roster. Dawn Gaffin sees no reason why the team won't be in the mix next season.

"We've got the same hitters back," Gaffin said. "We're going to miss big in Kaitlyn and Shelby, but we're going to put Rainey on the mound, and we're going to bring in some other hitters that are coming in and hit the ball well. And these guys are only going to get older and better and work on things they need to work on.

"We're graduating two, but a lot of the other great teams are graduating six, seven and eight or nine. You can't overlook that, but we just want to enjoy today."