By Luke Loftus The Johnstown Breeze
2025-10-23 06:00 AM
The Roosevelt Lady Rough Riders softball team was in Centennial last Friday, playing in their regional tournament which was hosted by second seed Palmer Ridge. In regionals, the top two teams make it into the round of 16. You must win twice before losing twice. The other two teams were the 15th seed Rifle Bears and the 31st seed Pueblo East Eagles. The Rough Riders were the 16th seed.
In the first game, the Rough Riders took on Rifl e. The Riders took an early lead, scoring two in the top of the first. Rifle quickly responded, scoring five in the bottom half of the first. But the Rough Riders weren’t done at the plate, scoring six in the top half of the second inning, making the score 8-5. After the five run first inning for Rifle, junior pitcher Kenzie Maddox really settled into the game.
“Super proud of Kenzie,” head coach Vince Moreno said in an interview Monday. “After giving up five runs in the first inning on four hits, Kenz only gave up one more hit for the game. All year long she has stepped up and done what we have asked. She did a great job keeping them off balance and having them hit ground and fly balls.”
Tallying six more runs in the top of the sixth inning, the Rough Riders would win the first game 15-5. The offensive leaders were senior Roz Muguerza, who went 4-5 with three RBIs, one HR, and scoring two runs. Senior Cali Bly went 4-4 with one RBI, scoring two runs. Senior Emily Beal was 3-4 with a HR, and two RBIs.
This put the Rough Riders one game away from making the Sweet 16. This time, they were facing Palmer Ridge. In the top of the first, the Rough Riders had runners on second and third with no outs but were unable to convert either of those runs. Palmer Ridge drew first blood in the bottom of the first, scoring six runs. In the second inning the Rough Riders got on the board with a single from Mandi Linder. In the bottom half of the second inning, Palmer Ridge scored two more, making the score 8-1. In the top of the third inning, the offense got going a little bit on a single from Molly Vetter, then a home run from Cali Bly, to make the score 8-3. Unfortunately, Palmer Ridge scored 10 in the bottom of the third, run ruling the Rough Riders, and the game ended, 18-3.
“Tip our hats to Palmer,” Moreno said. “They hit rather well. They have a tough lineup, and it seems everyone hits with power. We knew it would be a challenge against them.”
After going 1-1, it all came down to the last game. Either the season was over with a loss – or the ladies advance to the Sweet 16 with a win. They again faced Rifle, and this game wasn’t for the faint of hearts.
The Rough Riders started the game scoring two in the top of the first inning. Senior Lily Wiese led the game off with the single, to be batted in by Roz Muguerza, who would later come around to score on a passed ball. Rifle battled back in the bottom of the first matching the two runs. In the second inning, both teams got shut out. In the top of the third inning, the Rough Riders unloaded for nine runs, making the score 11-2 going into the bottom half of the third inning. One of the big hits coming from senior Molly Vetter, on a two-run home run.
“Molly has been seeing the ball rather well the last couple weeks,” Moreno said. “We needed her to get hot, and she picked a good time in the game to continue her hot streak.”
Rifle answered back with a nine of their own, tying the game at 11 going into the fourth inning.
Roosevelt answered right back, scoring seven runs. With solid pitching, the Rough Riders shut out the Bears in the bottom of the fourth.
In the top half of the fifth inning, the Rough Riders add one more run, making the score 19-11. In the bottom half of the fifth, the Rifle Bears scored six runs, making the score 19-18 going into the season deciding seventh inning.
It was led off with a triple from Emily Beal. An RBI groundout from freshman Zoie Barrett put the Lady Riders up 20-18. They weren’t done there, with three straight doubles from senior Lily Wiese, junior Mandi Linder and senior Roz Muguerza, putting them up 23-18. Then backto- back singles from seniors Molly Vetter and Cali Bly put them up 25-18 going into the bottom of the seventh.
They needed a big inning with the season on the line, and that’s exactly what they got.
In the seventh, Moreno inserted Maddox. She didn’t allow a run, advancing the Rough Riders to the Sweet 16.
“We started the game with Kenzie in the circle, went to sophomore Lexi Arave for a 1.2 innings and had to turn the ball over to freshman Davia Krause to come pitch 1.2 innings of relief for us,” Moreno said. “Credit to all three pitchers as they all did a fantastic job keeping us in the game. Our pitchers did an amazing job, giving up only three earned runs, the other 15 runs were not earned. Walks and errors about cost us this game. Kenzie pitched a lot of pitches in the two games against Rifle, but again she did what she was supposed to do. Keep us in the game and let our offense win the game.”
Moreno said overall it was a satisfying regional. “We knew it would be a challenge to win the region,” he said. “Our goal was to be the second team in the region and to make it to the Sweet 16. All year that has been the girls’ goal. I am happy for our seniors, they made it to state their sophomore year, so for them to get back their senior year, that’s what they wanted, and they worked to get it. We will have our work cut out again, but all we need is to believe!”
The Rough Riders now enter single elimination play, and face the number one overall seed, the Windsor Wizards, at 10 a.m. October 24 at the Aurora Sports Complex.