Holy Family fends off Mead in Class 4A top-10 showdown – Boulder Dai…

BROOMFIELD — Holy Family is having some fun with its pitching depth.

About one month after sophomore Isabella Arroyo tossed a complete game in a 2-1 win over Mead on Aug. 23, Tigers head softball coach Moriah Nguyen opted to give their Class 4A Northern Colorado Athletic Conference rival a different look in Thursday’s rematch.

Freshman Emmaline Humphreys got the start and was essentially unhittable in her five innings pitched, striking out 11 of her first 15 batters en route to a 7-1 home win for the back-to-back defending state champion Tigers (14-4, 3-0 NCAC).

“Both of our pitchers came ready to work today and our hitters did their job in the box,” Nguyen said. “I couldn’t ask anything better of the entire team. It was a team effort.”

Mead, which lost to Holy Family in last season’s state playoff quarterfinals, dropped to 9-7 (2-2 NCAC).

In a game between two Class 4A top-10 teams, every pitch had some added pressure for both No. 3 ranked Holy Family and No. 9 Mead. However, the Tigers once again appeared comfortable playing under some stress.

“We got to realize that everyone is coming for us,” said Tigers junior catcher Makaila Moosbrugger. “We got to be the ones to ambush them because they’re coming out and giving us their all, so we got to give them two times more of what they’re giving us.”

Moosbrugger had a front-row seat for Humphreys’ dominant performance, which was followed by two shutout innings from Arroyo.

“It’s amazing to see them encourage each other and build off one another and come out here to do whatever they can to help each other get the win,” said Moosbrugger, who offensively went 3-for-4 with three RBIs.

With Humphreys doing her thing in the circle, it didn’t take long for Holy Family’s offense to start clicking. After leaving the bases loaded in the first inning, nine-hole hitter Mari Nunez scored the Tigers’ first run on an Arroyo second-inning triple — the first of her two Thursday three-baggers.

Tied 1-1 going into the Tigers’ half of the third inning, junior Kaylee McDonald led off with a single, Moosbrugger flashed her wheels with an RBI triple and sophomore Danielle Duran followed with an RBI double all in succession. Nunez later scored Duran with a two-out single to give the Tigers a 4-1 lead.

Holy Family added another run in the fourth and two more in the sixth. Moosbrugger tallied an RBI single in both innings and McDonald had a run-scoring single.

“As a team, that’s kind of been our goal to score every inning and the girls really buy into that,” Nguyen said. “They know the game is never finished.”

For the Mavericks, they were able to muster only three hits on singles from seniors Katelyn Wiescamp, MK Dusza and sophomore Nikki Ward. Sophomore Adisyn Rademacher scored the Mavs’ lone run via a first-inning wild pitch.

Holy Family has another difficult matchup ahead on Saturday at Class 5A No. 2 Chatfield, while Mead will look to regroup at Roosevelt on the same day.