Photo by Will Cornelius
The entire Spartan baseball team ran out to celebrate as Brandon Wageman (#13) scored the winning run against Resurrection Christian School at the bottom of the ninth inning on May 5.

By Will Cornelius
The Surveyor

Spartans beat Rez Christian in a thriller
It took nine whole innings of baseball against visiting Resurrection Christian School (RCS) before either team managed to score a run. An epic pitching battle between two sophomores saw only four hits from a combined 55 at-bats from both teams.

The game was tense wire-to-wire, each time one team seemed poised to break out, a strikeout would dash their scoring hopes. Even the weather was nervous with a thundercloud causing a lightning delay for 35 minutes.

The stalemate was finally broken in the bottom of the ninth inning by a duo of Spartan seniors. Pitching for RCS was Vaughn Green who had 12 strikeouts while only allowing one hit in the past eight innings. Berthoud’s Brandon Wageman opened the inning by reaching first base on a walk — one of only two Green allowed all game.

Next, Landon Kuntz stepped up to the plate and did something he had not done all season. He bunted. The shallow hit caught RCS by surprise as Green raced forward to field the ball. With Kuntz flying to first, Green overthrew his first baseman and the ball traveled into the obscurity of the right field fence line.

Wageman wasted no time and was fast approaching third as head coach Buddy Kouns waved him home as he saw the errant throw miss first base. The speedster crossed home plate and was quickly swarmed by his teammates in celebration. “Right off the bat, I knew I was going. So I just took off — and ended up winning the game for us,” Wageman said after the game.

Kouns praised Green’s pitching and said it was unfortunate for him to lose such an exceptionally pitched game. “That’s as well a pitched high school baseball game by two pitchers that I’ve ever seen. I mean it was crazy,” Kouns commented.
The other hero for the Spartans was Adam Hayes on the mound who threw 116 pitches over nine innings while only giving up two hits with no runs and 11 strikeouts.
On Monday, the Spartans defeated Platte Valley High School in Kersey 3-0 to improve to 15-5 overall on the season. This Friday, BHS will host undefeated Eaton High School at Jack Sommers Field with Hayes expected to pitch.

State tennis time for Lady Spartans
The Lady Spartans tennis side has been busy the past two weeks. On May 2, the team traveled to Lafayette to play Dawson School. It was a tough matchup that saw BHS lose six of their seven matches. The silver lining was that the lone win was in the No. 1 singles line by senior Nicolette Marty. “I did lose the first set, but it didn’t stop me, and I didn’t let it get in my head,” she said about coming back to win the last two sets in the match.

On May 3, BHS hosted Fort Lupton High School for Senior Night. Along with Marty, seniors Danae Alverson, Taylor Cuffel, Kendra Maitland, Lyndsey Pancost and Avery Tartaglia were also honored. The Lady Spartans went on to win all seven matches against visiting Fort Lupton.

Last Friday, May 5, BHS traveled back to Dawson for the second time in the business week for regionals. Advancing to the 3A state tournament held today, May 11, in Colorado Springs are the following: Marty in the No. 1 singles line, Alverson and Maitland on the No. 1 doubles line, Justin Jaros and Phoebe Jones for the

No. 2 doubles line and Hayley Jones with Tartaglia in the No. 3 doubles line.

Girls golf shows depth at Olde Course
Coming off a stellar victory in Sterling last week at the Patriot League Tournament, the girls varsity golf squad stayed closer to home Monday. Playing at the Olde Course in Loveland, the Lady Spartans finished with a team score of 292, 12th overall, but second best in the 3A classification behind Resurrection Christian.
Golf standouts Olivia Gravestock and Anya Knoll both missed the tournament, forcing sophomores Mason Premer, Malia Sylva and Kaylee Padilla to step up.

“All of us are really close, so it’s a lot of fun and the dynamic between all of us. And overall — we’ve been doing pretty good and competing,” said senior Ashley Russell about how the team has performed this season. On May 1, Russell shot 85 at the Patriot League Championship in Sterling, the best score at the tournament.

It was a clear day in Loveland with temperatures in the high 70s and low 80s. But a light to moderate breeze kept things challenging at times for golfers.
BHS junior Brooklyn Tychsen led the team, shooting 93. Russell was close behind her with 96. Premer shot 103, Sylva finished with 108 and Padilla rounded it out with 114.

“I definitely could have done better, but overall I had a pretty good round. I definitely pulled my putting and short game together there at the end,” said Premer after the round. She said the team misses Gravestock but feels they have a solid team heading into regionals. Shifted from Sterling to Craig by CHSAA, BHS will compete in regionals on May 22.

Soccer future looks bright for Berthoud
The Lady Spartans finished their season on the soccer pitch at home last Friday, unfortunately, it was a three-goal loss to Greeley Central High School. This school year, Dylan Owens has taken over the Berthoud soccer program as head coach for both the girls and the boys side.

Coincidently, Owens left Greeley Central to come to Berthoud. “I’ve learned so much from being a part of that program and I’m taking that here and we’re building great things here,” he said after the last game of the season.

For the season, BHS finished 5-10 overall — but 5-4 in the 3A/2A Patriot League. Last year the varsity girls soccer team at BHS went 1-14 and 0-9 in league play. “I’m proud of what’s happening,” Owens commented.

This season, the varsity girls squad featured mostly sophomores and freshmen, with only three seniors. With a developing JV squad also percolating in the background, next season could see the team take the next step.

“I’m really excited to take what we have built on now and go a little further. I think it’s my job to make this job simple. But as I’ve been with groups for a while we want to start making for more complicated play and we want to stretch our capability and continue to develop our players,” Owens said about looking forward to the future of Spartan soccer.

“It’s a dramatic change. I think everyone’s kind of shocked with how good our season went,” said junior midfielder Madalyn Rogers — who led the team in goals scored with nine. Sophomores Lillian Dodd and Gwyn Marks tied for second on the team with five goals apiece. Freshman Lydia Oklyama was hot on their heels with four of her own.

A mid-season injury to keeper sophomore Abi Speer called freshman Avery Pfohl into service for the rest of the season. Speer herself rose to the occasion last year when a keeper was needed. Pfohl had no soccer experience before this year but also delivered when her team needed her the most.