1A Baseball: Mental miscue turns into championship-winning moment for Flatirons Academy

LAKEWOOD – It looked like Caleb Ast lost count.

After Jakzon Livesay struck out Mateo Pope in the bottom of the fourth, Ast started walking away from first first base.

It was the distraction that Flatirons Academy needed. Akron made every effort to get the out and it allowed Preston Miller to make a break for home. When Miller touched home plate, the Bison took a one-run lead and never looked back.

“It’s called being a freshman,” coach Gino Carbajal said with a smile.

Flatirons Academy eventually plated two more runs to beat Akron 14-11 and claim the Class 1A baseball championship, beating the same Akron team that knocked off the Bison in the final last year.

“Half these kids have been to state every single year that they’ve been in high school and we finally got to [win],” junior Caleb Doughty said. “That’s pretty cool.”

It was also nerve-racking.

The Rams plated two runs in the top of the first before the Bison bats got their first look. FA slugged its way to take a 6-2 lead after bottom half of the inning, led by triples from Braxton Kelley and Pope, each one driving in two runs.

Even with momentum on their side, the Bison knew that history loomed large. They were up 5-0 a year ago before the Rams battled back to eventually win their first state title in program history. And to make matters worse, Akron had to battle back to get a 6-4 win over Merino in the semifinals.

“We know that has a heck of an offense,” Kelley said. “They came back against Merino and they’re never out of it.”

And the Rams proved it with an 8-run third inning.

Zach Bowin tied the game on an RBI-single, bringing in Caleb Hansen. Two more singles, a walk and an error gave Akron an 11-6 lead in the blink of an eye.

During the inning, Doughty was brought in to pitch and he brought stability to the FA defense for the remainder of the game.

“He throws strikes and he gets guys out,” Kelley said. “He’s got what it takes.”

Doughty ended up going 4 1/3 innings, giving up just five hits and one unearned run. The Bison fought their way back into the game in the fourth inning, benefitting from some control issues from the Akron pitchers. When Livesay finally fanned Pope, it seemed like things were going to settle down.

Until Ast had a momentary lapse that ended scoring the decisive run.

“The kids didn’t get on him,” Carbajal said. “They just said learn from it.”

It’s hard to get on a player for making a decision that played such a key role in a state championship victory, but it seemed to be the theme of the day for the Bison. They never got down on each other; they just made every effort to pick each other up.

After finishing as state runner up three times since 2021, the Bison finally captured the second state title in program history. Their first came in 2019 as Cornerstone Christian.

But no matter the name on the banner, this championship victory has been seven years in the making.