In two sports, Cheyenne Mountain's Charlie Doyle swings hard

This story is part of a collaboration between Colorado Preps and KKTV. The video package was shot and edited by KKTV sports director Jessica Mendoza

COLORADO SPRINGS – Bat flip or club twirl?

For Cheyenne Mountain senior Charlie Doyle, it’s a provides a momentary reflection period on which he prefers when mashing the ball associated with its respective sport.

All Red-Tailed Hawks baseball coach Mark Swope knows is that when Doyle makes solid contact, he’s not afraid to show off a bit.

“The biggest similarity is when he hits a golf ball, he’ll sit and pose on the tee box and when he hits a baseball, he’ll pose in the batter’s box and won’t run it out,” Swope said.

On the biggest of hits, he hasn’t had to run it out.

Playing in Las Vegas, Doyle stepped into the batter’s box against Silverado’s Giovanni Guariglia, a TCU commit, and just waited for his pitch. The ball sailed over the fence and the bases were loaded at the time. It was his first high school grand slam and just the second home run of his high school career.

“All I heard for that week coming up was how good that TCU pitcher was is going to be,” Doyle said. “The warmup before, he throws 93 and we’re all scared of him and then we put up 11 runs on him. When I get up, I think we had four runs at the time, so we had already done some damage, and I was looking for that first pitch fastball. I got it and I hit it.”

Some of the details got lost in his excitement. The Hawks scored 10 runs in the top of that first inning and chased Guariglia out of the game with eight of those runs charged in his name.

Five days later, in a slugfest win over Pine Creek, Doyle hit his second home run of the year. His consistent play on the golf course in his time at Cheyenne Mountain has led the Hawks to two Class 4A team state championships (2022 and 2024) so it’s fair to ask.

Bat flip or club twirl?

“I’d have to say bat flip because I have 17 other guys cheering me on,” Doyle said. “But both are great.”

Maybe he says that out of recency bias because he’s with his baseball team every day. Maybe he says it because he’s a good teammate and likes that his bat flip means there are 17 other guys that are benefiting from it. Maybe he says it because it’s his genuine response.

No matter, it shows the level of versatility that Doyle has as a high school athlete. He played baseball as a kid with his younger brother, Alex. He was pretty committed to both sports when he got to high school, but during his sophomore year, he knew that golf was going to be his priority.

But never once, did that mean he was going to give up baseball.

The decision to prioritize golf but stay committed to another sport that he loves has paid off. On top of helping Cheyenne Mountain win two state titles in three years, he was one of the 16 high school players to be selected to play for Team Colorado, a team that exists to expand the pipeline for local golfers into the US National Development Program.

Doyle and his teammates will compete against other state teams at various events over the summer.

“It’s a really good opportunity for the kids to go out and travel the country and play other teams’ top eight [players], just to see what you compare to in other states,” Doyle said.

But before then, he’s hoping he can help Cheyenne Mountain win its first baseball title since 2011.

“We’re hitting it really well,” Doyle said. “Our defense… we’re working on it. It’s not the strongest. But with a team like this, most of our team is seniors so I’ve been playing with them since freshman year, and I really think we can go far.”