The Reed High baseball team managed to knock two teams out of the 4A Northern Region Tournament this week.

Unfortunately for RHS fans, their beloved blue and gold’s season ended after it got blown out by Bishop Manogue, 15-0, Thursday afternoon.



Reed (19-17) lost more than a baseball game Thursday. The Raiders saw their season end and nine seniors watched their careers end.

“I’m pretty sad, but I’m also happy at the same time,” Reed’s senior catcher CJ Maldonado said. “We worked real hard to get this far and I’m really happy with what we’ve done.”

Reed, which dropped its first regional tournament tilt, 6-5 Tuesday at Douglas, came back Wednesday to knock off Damonte Ranch 5-2. The Raiders also rolled over Douglas in a second postseason meeting, 14-9, earlier Thursday.

“Everything stands out in my mind,” Maldonado said about his standout career at Reed. “The first day I walked onto the field … Everything’s always been a good experience for me.”

Maldonado didn’t get much of an opportunity to show off his hitting skills in Reed’s second game of the day, the lopsided loss to Manogue. He hit a fly ball to left field in the first inning and struck out in the third inning.

He wasn’t the only one of the RHS-nine to have a tough time against Manogue. Miners pitcher Ryan Baker pitched the shutout and only gave up two hits along the way in five innings.

The Miners, on the other hand, had no problem hitting. They scored 15 runs on 11 hits and posted runs in every inning. Manogue’s all-state candidate, Joe Wieland, had three hits, including a two-run home run he smashed over the left-field wall. Wieland also had a single and a double, accounting for three RBIs. He was walked on his fourth at-bat.

While Reed’s second game Thursday wasn’t much fun for Raider fans, their first game was. Reed sent Douglas packing with the 14-9 defeat. The Raiders had five home runs in the game to help them get by the Tigers and earn a date against Manogue.

“The momentum and excitement of that whole first game was just so mentally draining,” Reed coach Jon Foss said. “You hope that it will carry over and it did. Our momentum was there. It was just the matter of our arms not being there.

“We had tired arms and we ran into probably one of the top three pitchers in the North. It’s a tough hill to climb once you get into that position.”

In Reed’s win over Douglas, Stephen McDonald started off on the mound. The Raiders wound up using five pitchers in the first game. McDonald started against Manogue as well.

“It was tough,” Foss said. “I’m sitting there thinking, if we win this Douglas game, it’s going to be hard to find out who’s going to step up for us and try to get something done in that next game. We knew it. We knew we had a monumental task to try to get done.

“We were happy we knocked two teams out. That’s kind of what’s fun about this tournament. You might not be the winner, but you might go out and knock teams out and keep trying to do the best you can. That’s what our guys did. They didn’t give up. They kept battling.”

In the first game, the Raiders put on a home run clinic for the Tigers. Maldonado had two while Fabian Reza, John Pelino and Casey Yocom each had one, propelling Reed to the five-run victory.

“We stepped up. We played great baseball this week. We were inconsistent a lot of the season, but we played some consistent baseball this week,” Foss said. “I’m happy for the kids.”

Although the season has ended for the Raiders team and coaching staff, they were still upbeat after the game.

“I’m happy with these seniors,” Foss said. “They’ve been with me for four years and worked very hard for me. I’m happy they got to experience this regional tournament, win some games and knock some teams out.”