PUEBLO – This moment was four years in the making for Wyatt Waters.
When it arrived, the Lyons High School pitcher seized the opportunity.
Waters allowed just one run in 5.2 innings powering the Lions to a 5-1 upset of unbeaten Limon in the second round of the Class 2A state tournament at Hobbs Field at the Runyon Field Sports Complex.
“I had never faced Limon before in my career,” Waters said. “Coming into this, I know they are Limon and I had been paying attention to how they were doing all year. I knew we could totally play at their level and our team really came through which was awesome.”
Waters struck out seven batters, walked five and hit two in his clutch performance.
No. 12-seeded Lyons (18-7), which beat Swink 12-2 in the first round, advances to play reigning 2A state champion Denver Christian (22-4) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Hobbs Field.
The Lyons-DC winner moves on to the state championship game at 10 a.m., June 1 at Colorado State University-Pueblo’s Rawlings Field in the double-elimination tourney. Limon (25-1) drops down in the consolation bracket Saturday.
After a scoreless first inning, Lyons took a 1-0 lead in the second, thanks to two Limon errors, the last by shortstop Cale Bennett whose errant throw to first base trying to complete a double play allowed a run to score.
Limon answered to tie the game in the bottom of the third on Jordan Rockwell’s RBI single. Waters stopped the rally with runners on second and third by striking out Cale Bennett.
Lyons took the lead again at 2-1 in the fourth on another Limon throwing error which was the Badgers fourth error of the game. With two outs, Zack LaCrosse then muscled a single up the middle to give the Lions a 3-1 edge.
The Badgers were in business in the bottom of the fifth loading the bases after consecutive walks to Rockwell and Keon Bandy.
However, Waters rose to the occasion – again – striking out Lance Beedy on his 105th pitch of the game – to end the frame.
Lyons added two insurance runs in the sixth – one on an RBI single by Davis Abernathy and the other when Zack LaCrosse raced home on a wild pitch.
That set the stage for more Waters in the bottom of the sixth. He came back out to the mound with just five pitches left to reach his pitch count limit of 110. Waters induced a ground ball from Sherrer for the first out. He preceded to strike out Aiden Kollath on his final pitch of the game for the second out.
“This was 100 percent a team win,” Lyons coach Kale Olson said. “We knew they could do this. They just had to believe and play a good game and that’s what happened. Wyatt threw strikes, and we had zero errors, and they were focused and I’m really proud of them.
“When I went out there and he had 105 pitches, I told him this is what you trained all four years for – for this moment. Some guys might shutdown, but not him, he’s a bulldog. We were going to stay with him no matter what and he performed.”
Rocky Rockwell, Limon’s coach, knew his team didn’t play well enough against the talented Lyons squad.
“We knew Waters is one of the top five pitchers in the state in 2A and that we had a tough task ahead of us,” Rockwell said. “Our pitchers struggled to find their pitches at times and kudos to Waters because you could tell he was getting tired at 90 pitches, and he made it to (his pitch limit). He’s a wonderful pitcher.
“We just could not get things rolling in our ‘A’ game. Maybe this will wake our boys up to know they have to lock in early and focus and do the little things. I like the fact that we won 25 games in a row and now we have to win four or five.”
Olson, meanwhile, is preparing his team to knock off another giant in Denver Christian. The Thunder beat Lyons 12-0 on May 14.
“It seems like Denver Christian has had our number,” Olson said. “They are great team and well-coached and we really respect them. We will be ready, and they will be ready and anything can happen as we just learned (Friday).”
