University finds redemption in Class 3A baseball title win over D’Evelyn

GREELEY – The last three years have been rough.

On the final day of the baseball season for the last three years, University has been handed the silver trophy while watching Eaton (twice) and Coal Ridge celebrate a state title win.

On Saturday at Butch Butler Field, the Bulldogs got to let go of the emotion of those three heartbreaks by beating D’Evelyn 5-0 to claim the Class 3A baseball title, the seventh base championship in program in history.

“There is no other feeling like it,” senior Gage Viken said. “I feel like University is the most deserving program for this. I’ve been on this team and lost the last three years. Each one hurts and this just feels amazing to bring to University and Coach [Casey] Miller and our coaching staff.”

Everyone in the dugout will correctly say that it was a 1-9 effort to capture the first baseball title for the Bulldogs since 2019, but Viken was very much at the forefront. He threw a complete game, giving up just two hits and striking out 10 Jags in brilliant championship performance.

It was in the early morning hours of Saturday, that Miller expected his ace to throw the greatest playoff game of his high school career.

The team gathered at University High School to hit at 7:30 a.m. and what could have been a light-hearted session prior to a baseball game was anything but.

“Gage was locked,” Miller said. “Guys weren’t talking to him, he wasn’t talking to guys. It was, hey, leave him alone. He’s in a zone.”

The Bulldogs jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first after Damian Alvarez walked and stole second before Joel Ramirez singled to bring him in.

Viken then struck out the side in the top of the second.

Alvarez, Viken and Brody Duran all drove in runs in the bottom of the third to open up a four-run for University.

“We were all-around good today,” Alvarez said. “We had our lefty flowing and he gave us confidence to start, then our barrels started rolling.”

D’Evelyn won two games on Friday to get into the first state championship game in program history, but burned most of its pitching as a result. Darian Valdez-Berriel started the game with 40 pitches available (he threw 20 on Friday) and then Marshall Pharris took over in the third.

To the Jags’ credit, they hung tough and never let the Bulldogs put together a massive rally. Having averaged 10 runs per game in the state tournament, they relied heavily on their offense which Viken was determined to slow down.

“D’Evelyn has surprised the whole state,” Viken said. “They hit off [Eaton’s] Gunnar [Garrison], they hit off TCA, they’ve hit off everyone. I needed to be on my best game.”

That mindset was part of what Miller emphasized to his team coming into the game on Saturday. From experience, they knew that nothing was going to be handed to them.

“I said if you boys want it, you have to will it to happen,” Miller said. “That’s exactly what they did. They willed it to happen. They didn’t hope, they didn’t wish, they may have prayed, but then they willed it to happen and there was nothing that anyone was going to do to take it away from them.”

After going out and taking the win, the only thing that was handed to them was the 3A state championship trophy, the same one that has eluded them for the last three seasons.

And fittingly, it was handed to them by Greg Pearson, the longtime University coach who led the Bulldogs to the 1982 state championship and is retiring as a baseball site director.

“Me and Coach Pearson have a great relationship,” Miller said. “It’s amazing to share this with him.”

Miller also pointed out the players that were so crucial in the team’s last three seasons that fell just short of a championship.

“The Will Korbys, the Coel Croissants, the Kaleb Tejadas, they’re the ones who built the foundation for this,” Miller said. “They deserve it just as much as the next team.”

They were all there to celebrate. And to let the emotion of the last three years wash away with one hard-fought championship win.