BAYFIELD
Matthew Knickerbocker didn’t get to start the CHSAA Class 3A District 7 title game.
He finished it, instead.
The Bayfield High School baseball senior hit a walk-off single to give the No. 3-seeded Wolverines a 10-0 run-rule victory over No. 14 Sheridan on Saturday in Bayfield.
Dillon Hoselton trotted in from third to score the 10th run, and Kelton McCoy body-slammed him at home plate before the rest of the Wolverines piled on.
“It was incredible. I didn’t think it was going to be me,” said Knickerbocker, son of Kirk and Marie Knickerbocker. “I thought it was going to be Anthony (Chamblee) or Taed (Heydinger). I just drew the lucky straw.”
In the semifinal earlier Saturday, Heydinger threw a no-hitter in leading BHS to a 4-0 victory over No. 30 Trinidad.
Knickerbocker could have started either the first or second game in the tournament, but he was throwing up most of Friday night.
“My body is so weak right now. I just want to go to bed,” Knickerbocker said. “I showed up 15 minutes before both games, and (BHS head coach) Jon (Qualls) said ‘don’t worry about it, just play short and do your job.’ We’ve got other guys to back me up.”
BHS junior Zane Phelps threw the Wolverine’s second shutout of the day in the championship game, shutting down a Sheridan lineup in adverse conditions.
The Wolverines took a 7-0 lead after scoring five runs in the second inning and led 8-0 going into the bottom of the fifth inning.
“I thought when the weather started getting bad we made a few key errors that led to some more runs,” Sheridan head coach Manuel Marquez said. “We used our ace pitcher the first game. We had to take care of Game 1 before we could get to Game 2.”
Donovan Contreras threw a shutout for Sheridan (14-7) in the Rams’ semifinal win over Buena Vista, in which he struck out 17.
In Bayfield’s semifinal, Heydinger proved that Bayfield High School head baseball Qualls’ faith in him was well placed.
The Wolverines’ junior pitcher threw a no-hitter in leading BHS over Trinidad.
Heydinger only allowed two walks and two balls out of the infield, both of which landed in senior right-fielder Colter McMenimen’s glove.
“About the fourth inning it came to me,” said Heydinger, son of Chris and Tim Heydinger. “From there I just kept doing what I was doing – throw strikes and let the defense do the work.”
Hoselton stabbed a sharp grounder in the fifth inning that denied Trinidad of its best chance at a hit.
Heydinger also struck out nine in his seven innings of work.
“He was sneaky quick. He started to use his breaking ball in the later innings,” Trinidad head coach Frank Falsetto said. “I thought we’d start hitting the ball. I knew we were having trouble with his fastball the way we were swinging.”
BHS (18-3) found its offense early.
The Wolverines scored two runs in the first inning on a sacrifice fly by McCoy and a single by Brody McGhehey.
McCoy put an exclamation point on the game in the sixth inning with his 11th home run of the season, which leads Class 3A.
The game was delayed an hour because of inclement weather.
“I’m just glad we got the game in,” Falsetto said.
Now the Wolverines will await the completion of the rest of the district tournaments to find out their opponent next weekend in either Greeley or Niwot.
The Wolverines will face the winner of District 8, which features No. 6 Kent Denver, No. 11 University, No. 22 Bennett and No. 27 Coal Ridge. Those games will be played in the coming days because of weather.
“It gives us a little, I think, advantage. It gives us a couple extra days of practice this week,” Qualls said. “It gives us an advantage to know what’s happening Wednesday, and it gives our pitchers a little chance to recover.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
