AURORA – At one time, the Adams City baseball team was in a position to make the state 5A playoffs.
The Eagles have slipped back a ways from the state playoff derby. But it wasn’t that long ago that ACHS wasn’t even in the postseason discussion.
Adams City started this week with a record of 7-6, 4-1 in the Eastern Metro Athletic Conference. A year ago, Adams City won five games. In 2013, ACHS won just once.
The last time Adams City won as many as seven games in a season was 2012.
“The kids are starting to surprise me a little bit. They are starting to believe in themselves,” said ACHS coach Phil Castillo, who took over the program three years ago. “It’s a maturing process. When we came in, we had to change the culture a little bit. We gave them fundamentals that would play over.”
Senior pitcher Erik Gomez sees the difference, too.
“Hard work and dedication throughout the offseason,” he said. “Everyone has been dedicated. That’s all it takes. We have been saying we are capable of great things since last season. Here we are, turning things around. You just have to set your mind to it.”
Gomez has an earned-run average of 0.35 in five appearances this season. Jacob Rodriguez is the other main starter for Adams City. His ERA is an even 1.00 through four appearances. Jacob Rodriguez and Israel Munoz top the batting statistics. Rodriguez is batting .500 through 14 games. Munoz is batting .414 through 11 games. Narcisco Quezada has a team-leading five stolen bases. Braulio Meza has four.
“We have a better vibe during practice. We get along,” Gomez said. “We execute what we need to. It’s fun to have success and a lot more fun winning games.”
“They used to play to scores. When they were getting beat, they turtled up a little bit, hoping it would pass over,” Castillo said. “We try to teach reachable goals and expressly focus on positive things, let the negative things go away and continue to play through. It’s nice to see the maturing process and see these kids play through it.
“It’s a more relaxed atmosphere,” Castillo added. “The kids love being around each other. The knowledge of the game has increased immensely in the last three years because they have played a lot more baseball. We try to get them into B Legion and different things. We didn’t want to overwhelm them at first. But we increased the leagues in difficulty each year so that they understand the way it’s played at a higher level.”
Thanks to Colorado’s ongoing battle with snowstorms this spring, Adams City played just one game last week. ACHS beat Hinkley 6-1 on the Thunderbirds’ field. Quezada had three hits and two RBIs. Munoz and Marco Cabral added three hits. Gomez, Renato Meza and Marcus Perez had two hits. Gomez threw a complete game, striking out four.
Contact Sports Editor Steve Smith at ssmith@metrowestnewspapers.com.