Silver Creek softball’s epic comeback sets up division title game Saturday

A miracle win needs a hero. But senior MacKenzie Hunt and others on the Silver Creek Raptors were fighting back tears before the bottom of the seventh on Thursday evening in Longmont.

Stymied all day by Joslynn Veltien, the smooth sophomore hurler from Mead High School, Silver Creek trailed 5-0 with only three outs to go. Yet a seven-run seventh was capped by a grand slam blast into the gloaming by Hunt, and now the marshy softball field by Dry Creek Park will never be the same again.

“I want to win this for my team because they’ve worked so hard all day,” Hunt said. “I couldn’t have done it without my teammates getting on base in front of me. I didn’t want to disappoint them.”

The remarkable comeback sets up a winner-take-all regular-season finale at 11 a.m. Saturday, when Silver Creek visits Holy Family in Broomfield. Both teams are 8-0 in conference play and are seeking an automatic berth into the 16-team shotgun state tournament that begins next week. Mead started the week undefeated and hopes to sneak into the COVID-shortened postseason as well.

Hunt, like many of her teammates, struggled to catch up with Veltien’s variety all day and the Raptors’ cleanup hitter had struck out three times before the final frame.

The game was a battle between Veltien and departing Silver Creek senior pitcher Maddie Khuel. Khuel was overpowering and struck out 16 Mead Mavericks, tying her own personal record. But if Veltien would like to have yesterday’s seventh inning back, Khuel would like to forget the third.

After six strikeouts in the first two innings, the wiley Mavericks bunted twice and capitalized on two Raptor errors to take a 3-0 lead. Then Claire Adams tattooed a ball to right field to put Mead up 5-0 as Veltien settled in. Silver Creek scattered a few hits over the first six innings but was beginning to think about the implications of its first loss in a month.

A miracle win also needs a goat. Unfortunately for Mead shortstop Maddox Boston and second baseman Tayler Brown, their errors helped extend the final inning. After Khuel, Silver Creek’s best hitter, was intentionally walked to load the bases, Hunt didn’t miss her shot at redemption. She nailed a ball into the left field berm full of social-distancing parents who rose in disbelief. 

 

Every Raptor lost their mind for a brief moment, except one. As the winners floated around the bases, head coach Ryan Beavers simply offered a high-five from the coach’s box by third base. In his 14th year at the head of the Silver Creek softball program, Beavers had the same calm demeanor during the lowest of the lows and the highest of the highs.

“That’s the kind of team that we are,” Khuel said on a Senior Day like no other. “At the end of this season, it’s the kind of heart that we have and we’ve shown in every game. I believed it every step of the way. Being able to play that game, and have that ending on this field is a really special feeling. I don’t think there’s a better time for us to be playing Holy Family.”

When Hunt came home to greet her teammates the time to hold back tears had passed.