A down, and up, and down season for the Yuma High School baseball team came to a conclusion last Friday in Peyton.
Yuma opened the season 0-5, then won nine of 12 to climb above .500, only to lose its last six, bowing out in the first round of regional, 6-3 to Lyons.
The Indians finished with a 9-14 record.
Yuma had visions of possibly sneaking into the top eight of the RPI and hosting a regional. However, the Indians finished the regular season on a five-game skid, dropping to 18th in the RPI and sending them to No. 2 Peyton for regional.
Peyton rolled past No. 31 Rocky Ford 18-1 in the first game last Friday, which once again featured cloudy skies, cold temperatures and strong wind.
Yuma then took the field against 15th-seed Lyons.
The Lions took the early lead in the bottom of the first with three runs off of three singles and a walk.
Yuma finally got into it in the top of the third.
Kobe Rayl, playing for the first time in two weeks, blooped a single to left field. Yahir Trejo followed with a seeing-eye single past the shortstop. Trejo was erased on Andre Baucke’s fielder’s choice to short stop, but Silas Baucke followed with another seeing-eye single past the short stop.
Rayl, A. Baucke and Adrian Carranza, courtesy running for S. Buacke, all ended up scoring on errors, tying the score at 3-3.
However, as has happened all season, the opposition came right back. It was not so bad this time, as Lyons scored just one run in the home half for a 4-3 lead.
The Lions then tacked on two more in the fifth off of two hits, including a double.
So Yuma held Lyons to just six runs. However, the Indians could never get going offensively. They had two runners on the fifth, but a double play ended that threat. They got one on the sixth, and went down in order in the seventh.
Yuma had seven hits in its final game, all singles. Trejo and S. Baucke each had two hits, Rayl one hit and one run, A. Baucke one hit and one run, Jose Ruiz one hit, and Carranza one run.
S. Baucke went the first four innings on the hill. He allowed six runs, four earned, on six hits, striking out six and walking three. Trejo went the final two innings, allowing four hits and striking out two.
The game ended the high school careers of seniors Kobe Rayl, Yahir Trejo, Andre Baucke, Jose Ruiz, John Smith and Conner Lynch.
Peyton went on to beat Lyons 14-1 to advance to the 2A quarterfinals and semifinals scheduled for Saturday in Pueblo. Peyton will play 10th-seed Buena Vista in the quarterfinals.
Eighth-seed Wiggins, which the Indians swept a few weeks ago, beat 
Custer County and Ignacio in its regional, advancing to play top-seed Limon in the quarterfinals. Limon beat Holyoke and Byers in its regional on Monday. Akron lost to Byers in the first game. Burlington was the fourth seed, and beat Crowley County but then was upset 8-6 by 13th-seed Denver Christian in the regional final. Wray’s season came to an end with a loss to Dawson School in the regional hosted by third-seed Rye, which then beat Dawson 8-7.
Denver Christian will play Highland, and Rye takes on St. Mary’s in the other quarterfinals. The winners will meet in the semifinals, with the championship scheduled for June 4 in Pueblo.
1A
The Lower Platte Activities Association made a great showing in the Class 1A tournament, which concluded last Thursday.
Haxtun and Merino both had great games against defending-champion Holly at All Star Park in Lakewood.
Haxtun, the seventh seed in the 1A field saw Holly rally for a 6-5 win in the semifinals. Meanwhile, top-seed Merino cruised past 12th-seed Nucla 18-0.
Holly rallied late in the championship game to force a 3-3 tie, sending it into extra innings. Merino finally won in a walk-off in the bottom of the 10th inning with a 4-3 decision.
It was Merino’s first state title in baseball.