GOLDEN — Two of the hottest softball teams in Class 4A squared off Wednesday at Golden High School.

Conifer and Golden had combined for 18 straight wins heading into the key 4A Jeffco League match-up. Conifer avenged an earlier 16-8 loss to the Demons with a dominating 16-5 victory over Golden in five innings.

“It is really big. I knew we weren’t going to lose,” Conifer senior pitcher Jesse Nichols said about the showdown with league-leading Golden. “I think in the past we were expecting to win, but we didn’t really fight for it. I’m proud of how we fought for this win. We never gave up.”

Golden (12-6, 9-1 in 4A Jeffco League) was looking to extend its winning streak to 11 games. The Demons got off to a solid start with a 2-run home run by Golden senior Maddie Stubenrauch in the bottom of the first inning to put the Demons up 2-0.

However, Conifer responded with a 6-run top of the second inning that included a 2-run home run by senior Ruby Haver, 2-run single by senior Sydney Aikin and 2-run triple by junior Siena Shields. The hit parade and a pair of Golden fielding errors allow the Lobos (15-3, 7-3) to take a 6-2 lead.

“I felt like we needed to get more on the board,” Shields said of her 2-run triple that finished off the 6-run inning for the Lobos. “Jesse (Nichols) getting intentionally walked in front of me made me mad. I can still hit and I wanted to prove that.”

Conifer put up a 4-run top of the fourth inning and then buried the Demons with another 6-run inning in the top of the fifth inning. Shields came up big again with a 3-run home run.

Golden scratched out a run in the bottom of the fifth inning in an attempt to keep the game going, but Nichols stranded a pair of runs with a pair of groundouts to end the game.

“Our mindset was really unity. We really needed to come together,” Shields said of the rough start in conference play. “We lost to three pretty good teams, but we knew we had to work together to play like the team that we know we can be.”

The Lobos extended their own winning streak to nine games after starting league play 0-3 with losses to Pomona, D’Evelyn and Golden.

“Their mentality has changed,” Conifer coach Carried Oletski said of the win streak that started after the loss to Golden on Sept. 14. “We got mad after the loss to Golden.”

The second go-around has resulted in the Lobos flipping the script against the Panthers, Jaguars and Demons to get three victories against those teams over the past week.

Oletski said that she believes one of the turning points this season was last Saturday, Sept. 28, where she started all her freshmen in a non-league game against Thornton. After three innings the Lobos led 3-2.

“At that point we I knew it was a game we had to win,” Oletski said. “It was a game that our senior knew they had to win.”

The Lobos won 6-2 and two days later defeated D’Evelyn 11-9.

The Jaguars (14-5, 8-2) are currently second in the conference. The win over Golden tightened the league race a little. The Demons have a 1-game lead over D’Evelyn and 2-game lead over Conifer with four conference games remaining.

“That was the goal at the beginning of the season,” Nichols said of winning the league title. “Things happen and you have to just go with the flow. As long as we play our game we’ll be OK. I’m just so proud of how far we have come and how far we’ve come back.”

Conifer closes out conference play against Wheat Ridge, Green Mountain, Dakota Ridge and Standley Lake. If the Lobos get some help, they could still make a miraculous come-from-behind run to win the conference title.

Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Public Schools