PUEBLO – With a flurry, the Fury captured the coveted Class 2A state baseball championship.
The Forge Christian Fury accomplished that feat by steamrolling Denver Christian 11-0 in five innings in the title game Saturday at Hobbs Field at the Runyon Field Sports Complex.
“This is my first time winning a state championship in 25 years,” said Forge Christian coach Jim Polson, who coached at Mountain Range, Ralston Valley, Fairview and Pomona before coming to Forge nine years ago. “It is hard to find words for this but as much as these kids like each other and the culture we have…we started looking for championship quality in everything we did when these seniors were freshmen. They just bought in and really love each other and love winning.”
Top-seeded Forge Christian (25-4) finished its magical season on a six-game winning streak. Forge Christian, formerly known as Faith Christian until the fall 2023, has now won four baseball state championships in 2007, 2011 and 2016 in 3A and 2025 in 2A.
Forge Christian had a 3-0 record against Denver Christian this season, also capturing 10-3 and 3-2 wins over the Eagles on April 12 and April 15, respectively.
Denver Christian (20-10), the reigning two-time defending 2A state champs, was going for its fifth state baseball title as the Eagles also won in 1996 and 2013.
Forge Christian was undefeated in the double-elimination tournament and as such Denver Christian had to beat the Fury twice on Saturday.
The Fury never let DC threaten their state championship mission – scoring early and often.
In the bottom of the second Brock Wycoff led off with a single and moved to second on a ground out by Asher Garner. Then, Jonah Boykin dropped a double into shallow right. Ivan Murphy, the courtesy runner for Wycoff, scored on a safety squeeze bunt by Sam Buerck.
Buerck proceeded to steal second and Boykin raced home. Moments later, Buerck scored on a ground out by Will Taylor to put the Fury up 3-0.
The Fury continued to step on the offensive gas pedal in the third.
Forge’s Ben McLean led off with a double down the third-base line. Burke Jasa’s ground out to second base moved McLean to third. The next batter Sullivan Strange smashed a double to left to score McLean, putting the Fury up 4-0.
Wycoff lifted a flyball to right and Strange moved to third bringing up Garner. Garner had an infield single to plate Strange. Boykin then smacked an RBI double to push the lead to 6-0 for Forge. Buerck’s RBI triple made it 7-0 moments later.
In the bottom of the fourth, Jasa’s RBI double to deep right field off relief pitcher Charley Davy put Forge up 8-0. Strange, the next batter, knocked in Jasa to make it 9-0. Will Taylor’s two-run single capped the Fury’s scoring.
“We were looking for stuff we could handle and stuff we could hit hard,” said Jasa, who was 2-for-3. “Just (trying) not to do too much and let it come to you. This is the best (to win state) and super fun. We were never satisfied until the end. We kept going and kept working and got the job done.”
While Forge’s bats were booming, Wycoff was cruising on the mound. He fired a complete game two-hitter, striking out six and walking just one batter.
“We definitely wanted to attack,” Wycoff said. “We were just coming out trying to throw strikes and get ahead of them. We did that and we succeeded. I’m really happy. This is amazing to be a state champion.”
(Tracy Renck)
