Eagle Valley softball headed to state tournament for first time since 2005
The Devils have put together back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in over a decade
Ben Roof/Courtesy photo
The Eagle Valley girls softball team is headed back to the state tournament for the first time since 2005.
“It’s been a long time coming to change the culture of Eagle Valley softball, but we’re really starting to see the fruit of our labor,” said head coach Matt Kruetzer, who has shepherded the current crop of athletes into competitive relevancy since taking over the program in 2019. Kruetzer coached the current junior class when they were 10-11-year-old Little Leaguers.
“I’ve been with the core group of girls for a long time. It’s been kind of fun to watch them grow,” he said. “They’ve always had a really strong work ethic and desire to put in work. Not afraid of physical conditioning and just giving their all from the very get go.”
The Devils went through a lean period before going 11-9 last fall — the team’s first winning campaign in over a decade — and 12-9 this year. There hadn’t been a league victory in four years before 2022. The Devils were 4-15, 0-9, 2-16 and 1-18 in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013, respectively and were 2-14 in 2019, when the current juniors were eighth-graders.
“They worked hard all summer long and then went in as freshmen that year and just kind of took that culture of ‘the more work we put into something, the more we get out of something,'” Kruetzer said. “They really grabbed a hold of that and now we’re starting to see that culture get passed onto the incoming players.”
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The success of last year’s Anna Baker-led team, which upset No. 5-ranked Palisade 7-4, “set the expectation going into this year,” Kruetzer said. This year’s season-defining win, an extra-inning one-run victory over then 11-2 Rifle, had the Devils were poised to claim the league title. An injury to starting pitcher Phedre Kempton, however, proved detrimental in the final week of the regular season.
Eagle Valley fell 10-9 on Sept. 29 against the Bears, who completed the season 16-7 and ranked 20th in the CHSAA Selection & Seeding Index, then fell 16-9 to Basalt five days later.
“I was really proud of the girls — they just never give up,” Kruetzer said regarding the Rifle rematch. “Their mentality is they’re never out of a game no matter what the score is, which I really think will help us when we play these upper two teams.”
No. 31 Eagle Valley will face No. 2 Riverdale Ridge, one of the eight hosts in the first postseason weekend, on Saturday at 10 a.m. No. 15 Golden takes on No. 18 Niwot on the other side of the double-elimination round of 32 tournament. The top-two teams from each of the eight round of 32 sites will advance to the finals at Aurora Sports Park Oct. 20-21.
A fractured foot will keep Kempton out of the playoffs, but Kruetzer said the bullpen has stepped up.
“I can’t stress enough that the team has really rallied and that has got us here,” he said.
There have been a few individual standouts as well. Baylee Castillo leads the team in batting average (.468), home runs (3) and RBI (28).
“She’s had an incredible year at the plate,” Kruetzer said, also giving praise to Ellia Blakely, who leads the team in runs scored (34). “(Ellia) goes out and just executes fundamentals at a professional level,” the coach continued.
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“Every time she touches the field, she puts in as much work as she can, which is a good representation of what it takes to play at the next level.”
Audrey Crowley, an elite Ski and Snowboard Club Vail para-Alpine skier who was born with a right arm that ends at the elbow, leads the team in hits (30). Kruetzer said the junior is one of the best two-strike hitters he’s ever seen.
“She doesn’t miss a beat on the field. Her ability to hyper-focus, especially with two strikes, makes her an incredibly tough out,” he said. “She’s another one that just works hard, puts the team above herself and just leads in that type of character.”
Kruetzer said the Ravens (21-2) have quality pitching but knows his team won’t be intimidated Saturday morning; their preparation has been the same this week as it was all season.
“It’s kind of the same mentality we’ve taken into every game – we’re just going to go out and work harder every day than the other team is going to,” Kruetzer said.
“Expectation was there this year and these girls, since they were 10-11 years old — when they have expectation, they execute. And this year was no different. It’s just been fun to watch.”
