The Otis baseball team is advancing in the Class 1A postseason.
The Bulldogs, 9-7, found themselves as the 13th seed in the 16-team field when it was released on CHSAANow.com on Monday. They will be at fourth-seed Dove Creek, located about 560 miles away, north of Cortez and located near the Utah boarder in the southwest corner of Colorado.
Fifth-seed Flatirons Academy and 12th seed Nucla also will be at Dove Creek. The first-round winners will meet later in the day for a chance to advance to the state semifinals.
The semifinals and championship game will be held May 19 at All Star Park in Lakewood.
Merino, which beat Haxtun in the District 4 final last Friday, is the top seed, hosting Elbert, Simla and Granada on Saturday. Haxtun is the seventh seed, and travels to second-seed Cheyenne Wells. Caliche also advanced out of District 4. The Buffaloes are the 11th seed and go to third-seed Evangelical Christian.
Otis advanced to the District 4 semifinals before getting knocked out by Haxtun.
The Bulldogs opened tourney play earlier in the week with a 15-2 win over Fleming.
They scored four in the bottom of the second for a 4-1 lead. They led 6-2 when they erupted for nine runs in the bottom of the fourth.
Otis had four doubles among its 12 hits. Peyton Wells was 4-for-4 with a double, two RBI and two runs, JJ Ward two hits with a double, three RBI and one run, Erick Thorn two hits with a double, four RBI and two runs, Maddox Hisam a double, two RBI and two runs, Garrett Patterson two hits and one run, Kaleb Jones one hit, two RBI and two runs, Carter Wells two runs and one RBI, Tayte Smith one run and one RBI, Wyatt Reynolds one run, and Paxton Davis one run. Thorn went four innings on the hill for the pitching win. C. Wells pitched the fifth.
The win sent the Bulldogs into the district semifinal Friday against Haxtun.
It was a reversal of the previous game as the Fightin’ Bulldogs of Haxtun built a 4-0 lead through two innings, then blew it open with nine in the fourth for a 13-1 win. Otis’ lone run came in the fifth. Otis statistics were not available.
