ARVADA — After a lightning delay of nearly an hour, Arvada West softball brought the thunder with the bats.
The Wildcats hammered out a 11-1 home victory over area-rival Pomona on Wednesday. Every A-West batter recorded at least one hit in the 18-hit attack a day after the Wildcats suffered a 7-3 loss to Conifer.
“We just kind of lacked some energy and focus yesterday. One inning got away from us,” A-West coach Brenna Millikan said of the loss to the Lobos that featured a 5-run third inning by Conifer. “It was good today to see if we allow a hit or couple of walks we could close that back up. We had some good plays on defense that helped ignite that energy back up.”
Back-to-back 3-run innings for A-West in the first two frames allowed the Wildcats to quickly erase an early Pomona 1-0 lead. Pomona senior Lia Martinez scored on an error to give the Panthers the lead.
“There is two ways to go about it,” A-West junior pitcher Morgan Farr said of Pomona taking the lead. “You can either fold or get angry and be like, ‘Let’s go.’ Get excited.”
A-West responded with five singles in the bottom of the first inning to grab a 3-1 lead. Farr drove in the first run and fellow junior Vivyanna Dycus finished off the inning with a 2-run single.
It was more of the same in the bottom of the second inning. Senior Hallie Thomas had a 2-run triple and Farr drove in her second run to push the lead to 6-1.
“We are coming together,” said Thomas, who drove in three runs in the win. “This is a new team from last year. We are trying to find our spark.”
Last season, A-West had a 22-5 record and lost in the second round of the Class 5A state tournament to eventual state champion Chatfield. The Wildcats graduated seven seniors, including the majority of their pitching staff — Sophia Finney, Mac Ferguson and Brooklyn Burgess — that logged 158 innings on the mound last year.
Farr — 1.58 ERA over her 13 innings pitched last season — will likely be the workhorse on the mound for the Wildcats.
“Morgan is ready to go. She has really worked hard this off-season,” Millikan said of the Wildcats’ new ace. “Last season we really didn’t need her because the (pitching) depth we had, but we always knew she was there.”
Farr’s teammates are confident she can handle the increased load.
“Of course she can handle it,” Thomas said of Farr being leaned on heavily in the pitching circle. “She is a strong girl. She is good with what she done. We are behind her too on defense. We trust her and she trusts us.”
A-West (6-4 record) dives into 5A Jeffco League play next week. With the conference shrinking to seven teams the league schedule grows to 12 games playing each league foes twice. The Wildcats open at Columbine on Tuesday, Sept. 10.
“Jeffco is super competitive,” Farr said about entering conference play next week. “It is exciting to know every team we face from here on out will be a good, hard game. We are locked in and ready to go. I’m excited.”
Pomona (2-2) is coming off a season where the Panthers found themselves back on the state stage. Pomona had a 20-win season, advancing to the 4A state tournament where they lost to eventual state champion Lutheran in the opening round.
Coach Jeff Nealon returns a good core of last year’s team that gave the Panthers their first state appearance since 2017. Pomona will head to Greeley to play in the Northern Colorado Softball Showcase on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 6 and 7, later this week.
Photo by Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Public Schools
