About 48 hours after his prep career came to an end for Cheyenne Mountain High School in the 4A state baseball playoffs, Aaron Berkhoff provided an unforgettable highlight as he wore his Indians jersey one last time.

The Indians’ senior, a first-team all-Pikes Peak Athletic Conference selection who batted .442 with eight home runs and 28 RBIs this season, drove in the tying run and scored the go-ahead tally during a seven-run outburst in the ninth inning as the 4A squad beat a collection of 5A, 3A, 2A and 1A players, 10-6 in the 58th Southern Colorado High School Baseball All-Star Game, held Memorial Day at Mountain Lion Park at UCCS.

“I just tried to take it all in,” the infielder said. “These kind of games are always fun, and I get to play with guys I don’t get to play with during the season.”

Berkhoff was joined by fellow Indians senior Donaven Jackson in the contest, which moved to UCCS after a six-year run at UCHealth Park (formerly known as Security Service Field) and many years at Memorial Park.

Pine Creek’s Glenn Millhauser coached the 5A/3A/2A/1A combined team, while 4A’s student-athletes were led by Mark Swope of Cheyenne Mountain.

The game’s roots go back to 1962, when it was known as the Colorado Springs City Suburban Game. The name was changed to the Colorado Springs Senior All-Star Game in 2005.

Swope has served as the game’s coordinator since 1999 and didn’t want to lose sight of this year’s contest despite qualifying for the 4A state tournament for the second straight year.

“When I took this over from Bill Percy (of St. Mary’s), I made a promise to him that I would continue this thing,” Swope said. “It was super important to keep this going. When something has been going on 58 years in a row, you don’t want to be the one who dropped the ball. It wasn’t easy this year with the coordinating the event and making a run through the playoffs.”

Two days before the all-star game, Cheyenne Mountain was eliminated from the playoffs in a sloppy, 8-4 loss to Fort Morgan. The Indians opened with a 13-4 loss to Holy Family before rebounding to shut out Holy Family, 3-0 to stay alive.

And things were looking good against Fort Morgan as Cheyenne Mountain took a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the fifth inning, but three errors led to seven runs, and the Indians couldn’t recover.

“We had control of that game, but the wheels came off in the fifth inning,” Swope said. “We hang our hats on playing defense. We work so hard on that part of the game. But that’s the way baseball is supposed to be played. If you don’t play good defense, you’ll get beat.”

Berkhoff, who plans on studying aerospace engineering at the University of Colorado, has played his last competitive baseball game, at least for a while, anyway. Meanwhile, Jackson will continue to hone his craft as a catcher at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling.

Jackson, who drove in 23 runs and hit .371, won’t soon forget his time as an all-star and a member of the Indians baseball fraternity.

“It was a really fun experience for me, especially being my last time with my teammates and coach,” Jackson said. “We all worked together and created that special bond with this team. As time goes on, that will stick out as what I remember the most.”

Aaron Berkhoff chases down a Valor High School player that had tried to steal third during 2018 4A state semifinals. Berkhoff represented CMHS in last week’s all-star game.

File photo by Kelsey Brunner

File photo by Kelsey Brunner