It was a tough ending to the 2025 season for the Yuma High School baseball team, but better times definitely seem to be on the horizon.
The Outlaws came one win away from advancing to the 2A double-elimination tournament, losing 6-0 to Monte Vista in the regional final on May 17.
“We were disappointed, that’s for sure,” coach Brady Nighswonger said, “making it to Pueblo was a goal of ours and to be eliminated in the game to go there, especially on our home field, made it a little more painful.”
The Outlaws lose one senior regular from this year’s 17-7 team. Silas Baucke played a very big role in the pitching, hitting and in the field, but there are a lot of players that will help fill that void next season and beyond.
“I do think our window is open for a while to come,” Nighswonger said. “We were extremely young and being able to play in a game like that is very important for the next step. There were definitely some nervous that were shown on our part.
“I am very proud of this team,” he said. “This is one of the better seasons we have had, and I hope that loss fuels us going into next year.”
Nighswonger noted that Monte Vista is a good baseball team.
The Pirates have born that out by reaching the final weekend of the 2A tournament in Pueblo. As the eighth seed in the eight-team tournament, they opened last Friday in Pueblo with a 10-5 loss to No. 1 Forge Christian. However, they came back with two wins on Saturday in elimination games, knocking off No. 4 Peyton 16-0 and edging No. 3 Fowler 2-1.
Forge Christian went undefeated last weekend, securing a spot in the championship round on Saturday.
Friday features two more elimination games. Monte Vista plays No. 6 Denver Christian at 10 a.m. The winner then will play Platte Valley, which lost to Forge in the winners’ bracket final last Saturday. The winner of that Platte Valley game will meet Forge in the championship game on Saturday.