Niwot High baseball looking to move past recent struggles

Things haven't been easy for the Niwot High School varsity baseball team as of late.

The Cougars dropped their eighth straight game on Friday, April 26. Although six of the losses came by two runs or fewer, the struggles sting all the same. With only four regular season games remaining as of Sunday, April 28, Niwot's record stands at 6-10 (3-9 Class 4A Longs Peak League).

Still, third-year head coach Ken Rosales praised his players' handling of the recent rough patch.

"They're not giving up," Rosales said following Niwot's 6-4 loss at Frederick High School on Thursday, April 25. "They could've easily come out here and just be done. They come out, they got some stuff going, and they kept the energy up."

After losing both games of a twin bill at Skyline High School on Tuesday, April 23, Niwot was scheduled to play another doubleheader at Frederick on April 25, but a lengthy lightning delay allowed for only one game. The story there, at least early on, was defensive errors. Niwot committed three in the first two innings, helping the Golden Eagles to a 6-0 lead.

"These errors kill us every game," Rosales said. "We got to get over the hump and I feel we're right there."

Despite the big early deficit, Niwot rebounded nicely in the later innings. Junior outfielder Charlie Shaw got the Cougars' bats going with a leadoff extra-base hit in the fourth and freshman pitcher Jack O'Hare, a recent junior varsity call-up, quieted Frederick's bats.

"The rain delay helped us reset and helped us start fresh," Shaw said. "We knew what we had to do. We just came in with high energy. We had Jack's debut, he did a really good job hitting his spots. He's got a pretty good future for us."

Niwot brought the tying run to second base in the final inning but couldn't complete the full comeback.

"I like what we did at the end of the game today, but we left six (baserunners) on in the last two innings," Rosales said. "To have two strikeouts looking, that's rough. All we can do is keep moving forward."

On their home diamond the following afternoon, Friday, April 26, the Cougars fell to those same Golden Eagles, 7-0.

Earlier in the week, Niwot's bats exploded for seven runs on 13 hits against Skyline in the second game of a doubleheader. Haden Shaw and Kaige Kennedy each produced three knocks and Brock Rothstein had two. Drew Stapp, Arlo Richards, Charlie Shaw, Jude Schechter, and Henry Noblin also tallied one hit each.

Niwot hosts Mountain View High School on Tuesday, April 30, before facing the Mountain Lions in Loveland on Thursday, May 2.