PUEBLO — Despite a venue change and playing five hours later than originally scheduled, Severance and Golden both came to play in the Class 4A state baseball championship game Saturday at Rawlings Field on the campus at CSU-Pueblo.

In the end, the No. 6-seeded Silver Knights of Severance took a 1-0 victory over No. 4 Golden to win the school’s first ever state team title. The lone run was scored in the top of the second inning when Severance senior Joe Tamburro scored on a wild pitch.

“It’s huge. It won’t sink in for a while. That is a great group of kids,” Severance coach Kevin Johnson said as he looked over to the celebration on the field. “I’m so damn proud of these kids and the work they put in for the last three-and-a-half years that we have been a program.”

Severance High School opened its doors in August of 2019. The Silver Knights (23-6 record) faced Golden High School, which is the oldest continuously operating high school in Colorado having opened in 1873…150 years ago. 

“We just started this school four years ago,” Severance senior Mason Bright said. “I’m on top of the world right now.”

Bright was on top of his game on the mound throwing a complete-game shutout victory. Severance’s ace had only given up three singles — a pair by Golden senior Noah Wicks and one by sophomore Jaydon Stroup — through six innings. 

Bright had only thrown 79 pitches going to the bottom of the seventh inning, but a leadoff triple by Golden junior Braeden McCarroll gave the Demons (25-6) the opportunity to send the game into extra innings.

“He (Bright) is a very even-knelled kid,” Johnson said of the senior that nearly threw 80 innings for the Silver Knights this season with an ERA below 2.00. “He made good pitches to get the strikeout and then the fly out.”

Golden junior Noah Welte pinch-hit with no outs, but struck out. Senior Daine Hart hit a fly ball to left field. Severance left fielder Brycen Farris made the catch and fired to third baseman Noah Hertzke. Silver Knight catcher Angie Dominguez caught the relay throw from Hertzke and put down the tag on Golden sophomore Andrew Romero, who came in to pinch-run for McCarroll.

The home-plate umpire called Romero out on the close play at the plate for the final out of the game.

“I actually threw it and thought we had one more out to go,” Farris said of starting the defensive gem. “I was celebrating in the outfield thinking we had just got the second out and then I saw the dogpile and ran in. It’s surreal. It really is.”

Bright picked up his 12th victory of the season while relying on the stellar defense behind him that didn’t commit an error in the 12th straight victory for the Silver Knights to end the season.

“Brycen had a wonderful throw from the outfield that won us that game,” Bright said. “I’m very thankful for that.”

Golden had five baserunners in scoring position during the game, but couldn’t push a run across the plate.

“It was a bang-bang play at the plate. That’s just how it works out sometimes,” Golden coach Jackie McBroom said of the final play. 

Golden had a difficult road to the championship game. After a solid 9-0 shutout victory over Summit during the opening round of the double-elimination state tournament May 26, the No. 4-seeded Demons suffered an 8-5 loss that same day to top-seeded Holy Family. The uphill battle begun.

Golden stayed alive with a 8-1 victory over Riverdale Ridge on May 27 at Mountain Lion Stadium at UCCS to advance to the Final Four this weekend.

Seniors Laif Palmer and Wicks — who got the wins on the mound against Summit and Riverdale Ridge — both had brilliant pitching performances Friday, June 2, at UCHealth Park in Colorado Springs. 

Palmer had 13 strikeouts in a 3-2 victory over Lutheran. Wicks not only came in to get the final out against the Lions when Palmer hit his 110-pitch count, Wicks threw a complete-game 3-hitter against Holy Family in a 4-1 Golden win Friday afternoon.

The victories on Friday sent Golden into Saturday’s situation to be in the championship game against Severance. The Silver Knights had the luxury of advancing straight to the title game after a 3-0 start to the tournament that included wins over Cheyenne Mountain, Pueblo County and Holy Family the pervious week. 

McCarroll was equally up the task Saturday against Severance with Palmer and Wicks not in the mix to pitch after combining for 200 pitches on the hill Friday.

“Braeden gave us a chance to win,” McBroom said. “He did just as good as (Palmer and Wicks) did. Give credit to their pitcher (Bright), but we needed to do better and scratching a run across.” 

The 4A state championship game was scheduled to be played at 10 a.m. Saturday at UCHealth Park in Colorado Springs. The decision was made around 9 a.m. that the field in Colorado Springs was unplayable due the wet field conditions, so the game was moved to a 3 p.m. in Pueblo after the 2A state championship game.

“We just had to keep the energy up, obviously,” Bright said. “We had to keep it on the bus listening to music and staying in the zone. Then we watched the end of the 2A state game before us. We knew we had to get going right away.”