By John Cackowski
State Director

Greenwood Village - The Cherry Creek Bruins (2-0), coming off a comeback 5-4 victory against the Dakota Ridge Eagles last Saturday, matched up in another tough non-league game against Ralston Valley (0-1) at Tom McCollum Field on Wednesday and came away with a solid 6-2 win over the Mustangs. The Mustangs brought their senior ace to the mound Drake Davis (Arizona State commit), however the Bruins junior LHP Quentin Parr did not seemed phased at all with the matchup and helped lead the Bruins to victory. 

In the bottom of the first as Davis was trying to settle in and the Bruins took advantage with the help of an rbi single by junior Andrew Chavez, then another single by junior Isaac Kron which drove in another 2 runs to put the Bruins up 3-0. 

Davis would settle down in the 2nd and 3rd throwing two scoreless innings, but Parr would keep pace allowing just one run to score in the 3rd when senior SS Jeff Cyr drove in junior OF Sam Lennarson with a sac fly. 

Ralston Valley had a couple of chances late in the game to close the gap but Parr held his ground. In the top of the 4th the Mustangs would lead the inning off with a single from junior 1B Brock Downing. Downing would steal second, but Parr would then pick off Downing. In the same inning Davis would drive a ball to deep center field only to watch junior OF Tanner O-Tremba range about 4 yards back to make an over the shoulder catch while crashing into the fence for the second out of the inning. Parr would then give up consecutive singles to senior OF Levi Leisenring and senior Anthony Capra, but Parr would induce a 4-3 groundout to end the inning. 

In the 5th, the Mustangs had one last chance in a very crazy sequence. Now down 4-1, the Mustangs would make one more valiant effort. Senior OF Justan Zamora would lead the inning off with a single off Parr. With one out junior Niklavs Levensteins would also single, and on that single Cherry Creek would over throw the ball getting it into infield which moved the runners up to 2nd and 3rd with one out. Next junior catcher Luke Leisenring (Arizona State) would drive a ball deep to left which looked like it was going out. Kron would get a glove on the ball at the warning track but couldn't hold on. Not knowing if Kron caught the ball, Levensteins froze on the bases and got a late jump and would be thrown out at home. On the throw to home, Leisenring would try to advance to 3rd on his hit but would also get thrown out which would go down as  7-6-2-5 double play. 

Junior RHP Jake Lawrence for Cherry Creek would come in the 6th and strike out 4 straight batters in route to 2 scoreless innings for the save in the 6-2 victory. Cherry Creek improved to 2-0 and will play next at Mountain Vista (2-0) on Friday 3-17. Ralston Valley (0-1) travels to Mullen (0-1) Saturday 3-18.

Highlights:

Cherry Creek
Quentin Parr: 5 innings pitched, 1 ER, 6 hits, 5 strikeouts
Isaac Kron: 2-3, 1 run, 2 RBI's
Tanner O'Tremba: 2-4, 1 run, 2 RBI's
Tyler Schultz: 2-3, 1 Run

Ralston Valley
Drake Davis: 4 IP, 4 ER, 5 hits, 4 strikeouts
Niklavs Levensteins: 2-3
Levi Leisenring: 1-2, 2B