Silverado savors unlikely championship

Spencer Patterson

Monday, May 22, 2000 | 9:53 a.m.

Brian Whitaker was fast asleep when his phone rang late Friday night. When his wife gave him the news, he thought he was still dreaming.

"My wife woke me up and said, 'You're the state champions. It was a double forfeit,' " Whitaker said. "I thought someone was playing a practice joke on me."

The caller on the other end of the line was telling the truth. Silverado had indeed been crowned 4A state baseball champions when Friday night's loser's bracket game between Durango and Reno was declared a double forfeit after both teams left their dugouts after an on-field altercation.

"You can never anticipate something like this happening," Whitaker said. "I'm sure Durango had every intention of getting after us on Saturday, and I really believe in my heart that we would have finished it anyway."

The Silverado coach stressed that on Saturday, as he met with a senior-laden club disappointed that it couldn't celebrate its championship on the field of play.

"The disappointment is for the kids," Whitaker said. "The players deserve to spend that moment with their families and friends, so from that standpoint, it's disappointing.

"But I told them that they should walk with their heads high. These guys are the champions, it's that simple," Whitaker said.

But though they received the trophy from tournament director Carl Barbeau on Saturday, it was clear the Skyhawks still hadn't come to grips with the strange turn of events.

"It's our senior year, and we were that close to winning it for ourselves," said pitcher Robbie Van, who was slated to start Saturday's title game. "We can't really prove that we were the best team on the field. It's those two teams' mistakes and we have to pay for it."

Added senior catcher Tommy Rojas, "Most of us have grown up together since we were 9 years old. It was our last game together and we didn't get to soak it in."

But senior shortstop Ryan Ruiz said he's getting over his initial disappointment.

"It's well deserved. We beat the best teams. There shouldn't be any questions," he said.

Indeed, after a season that saw the Skyhawks live up to some lofty preseason expectations -- including a No. 14 national ranking in Baseball America -- it would appear Silverado did answer all questions placed before it.

Playing in the state's toughest division, Silverado finished the regular season with a 19-6 record. Despite several serious injuries to key players, the Skyhawks breezed through the Sunrise Region Tournament with a 4-0 mark, looking a lot like the team that won last summer's American Legion state title.

With Van on the mound, the Skyhawks dominated Thursday's first-round state tournament game, besting Carson 11-1. The left-hander allowed just two hits and an unearned run, while teammates Jeremy West, Mike Eshragh, Eric Nielsen and Rojas provided the offense.

The next day -- in what would prove to be its final contest of the season -- Silverado met up with defending state champion Durango. What followed was an outstanding display of pitching, with Skyhawks right-hander James Wickman and Trailblazers righty Brent Johnson matching up on the mound.

Silverado finally broke through for a run in the fourth, when senior Joe Wickman doubled, moved to third on a fly out by Ruiz and came home on a West grounder.

That run would hold up, thanks to some sixth-inning heroics by one of the three underclassmen in the Skyhawks' lineup -- junior leftfielder Danny Esquer.

With Durango's Brandon Perry on first base and two out, Blazer Coltyn Simmons sent a deep shot toward the gap in left-center. The ball appeared destined to tie the score, as Perry rounded the bases, but Esquer saved the day with a diving catch.

The Skyhawks scored an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth when West's RBI double brought home Eshragh, and that was plenty with Wickman on the mound. The senior finished the 2-0 game with a one-hit shutout -- bringing Silverado's pitching totals for the tournament to three hits and no earned runs in two contests.

"Instead of having the state championship game, we can look back at the playoffs," Van said. "We were 6-0 in the postseason."

In the fall, Van will start his college career at UNLV, as will the Wickman brothers and Ruiz. West will head to Arizona State, with Rojas off to Pepperdine.

And though it may not have come in typical state title fashion, Whitaker said his players will always have their playoff memories to look back on.

"I told them if you look back at your last game, and it's a 2-0 shutout against the defending state champs, that's not too bad," Whitaker said. "To me that's closure, but to the kids it might not be right now."