Windsor, Fossil Ridge softball teams bow out in quarterfinals of state softball tournament
AURORA — It wasn't the ending either envisioned.
The Fossil Ridge and Windsor softball teams won their opening-round games at the Colorado state softball tournament on Friday, but each lost their quarterfinal contests later in the afternoon to end their seasons.
It's a rare year without a local squad in the state semifinals for the Fort Collins area.
Here's how it went down for each team at Aurora Sports Park.
Fossil Ridge
This wasn't a quintessential SaberCats' season, but they still made state in Class 5A as the No. 12 seed and took down No. 5 Chatfield 3-2 in Friday morning's first-round game.
Fossil Ridge jumped out to a 2-0 lead and led wire-to-wire, though it wasn't easy. Fossil held off a Chargers charge in the 6th inning, getting out of a two-on, one-out jam with no runs allowed.
Katelyn Hays' RBI double in the top of the seventh proved crucial after Chatfield scored two in the seventh and nearly tied it up before a pair of Brooklynn Cardenas strikeouts ended it.
A familiar opponent, No. 4 Erie, awaited in the afternoon quarterfinal. The SaberCats lost 2-1 to Erie in the regular season and again (8-2) in regional play on Oct. 14.
But Fossil Ridge again jumped out to a lead, this time a commanding 7-0 edge after several early Erie errors.
It didn't last.
The Tigers plated five in the second inning, temporarily knocking Cardenas out of the game on the mound. They ultimately tied it up in the fourth with three more runs, and then took the lead once Cardenas returned in the fifth.
After tacking on two insurance runs in the sixth, Erie held off Fossil Ridge's rally in the seventh, allowing just one run to end the SaberCats' season with an 11-9 loss.
"That was a tough one," head coach Dave Philop said after the game.
It's a testament to the program's incredible consistency that this was a disappointing campaign for Fossil Ridge.
The SaberCats ended the season with a 17-9-1 record for a 65% win percentage, the lowest for Fossil Ridge since 2010.
This was also just the third time in the last 12 seasons that Fossil failed to make the state semifinals and snapped a streak of three straight Final Four (or better) finishes.
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Windsor
The Wizards entered the Class 4A tournament as a No. 3 seed and among the title favorites.
They recovered from a 2-0 first-inning deficit in the opener against No. 14 Berthoud with a pair of runs on four straight hits in the fifth inning.
After a bang-bang play at first base went their way to open the bottom of the sixth, Windsor pushed across the go-ahead run and held on for a 3-2 win in the seventh, partly thanks to a critical Spartans baserunning error.
Wizards pitcher Kinza Sagel recorded the final 19 outs without allowing a run in a complete-game win.
Just like Fossil Ridge in 5A, the Wizards faced a very familiar opponent in the quarterfinals: No. 6 Mead.
It's hard enough to beat a team three times, right? Try four.
The Wizards had defeated their league rivals three times in the regular season by a combined score of 24-15. It didn't matter Friday.
Windsor couldn't push a run across in the late afternoon shadows, and Mead scored four in the middle innings to eliminate the Wizards with a 4-0 loss.
This was still a breakthrough year for Windsor, which made the state tournament for just the fourth time in the last 12 seasons, including back-to-back appearances for the first time in at least that long.
The No. 3 seed tied for the Wizards' highest seeding under the current state format, matching the 2011 Wizards team that finished as state runner-up.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Windsor, Fossil Ridge bow out in Colorado state softball tournament
