LAKEWOOD — Every game is “do or die” in the minds of Pine Creek baseball players. 

That sense of urgency has paced the Eagles all season, and that mentality has led Pine Creek to the 5A state tournament. Now, however, that mindset is a reality. And the Eagles must act as such to keep their season alive. 

The No. 4-seeded Eagles opened Friday with a 5-2 win against No. 5 Fairview but ended the afternoon with a 9-2 loss to top-seeded Arvada West at All-Star Park and dropped to the elimination bracket.

Pine Creek will play Saturday at noon against the winner of No. 2 Broomfield and No. 6 Mountain Vista, which play at 9:30 a.m. 

“We go in with the mentality of wanting to win and having to win every game,” Pine Creek coach Jeff Parker said. “We don’t look at this as an elimination game. In our minds, we have to win every game. We came into this game thinking we have to win and that’s the mentality we’ll carry over to (Saturday). We don’t let them think about an alternative; it’s just go out and collect W’s, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

The Eagles (22-4) found their mojo late in the opener against the Knights (18-8) and scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth to break a 2-2 tie and take a three-run lead. Two Eagles were hit by pitches in the inning with the bases loaded which sent two runners home. Jake Holm’s sacrifice fly in the sixth allowed Mikey Meyers to score. 

Pine Creek held that lead to defeat the Knights and parlayed that success into immediate runs against Arvada West (24-3). 

After Holm’s single with an out on the board, Kyle McDonnell’s RBI triple sent Holm home to make it 1-0 in the top of the first inning. 

“I saw two sliders two pitches before,” McDonnell said. “I knew I was going to get a fastball and he missed his spot and left it over the plate and I went the other way with it.”

The Eagles built a 2-0 lead after a wild pitch allowed McDonnell to scamper home. After that, as Parker stated, “We hit a little bit of a buzzsaw.” 

Arvada West held Pine Creek without a hit the remainder of the contest, and Wildcats pitcher Cooper Vais, who’s 12-0 after the win, fanned 11. The Wildcats took a 3-2 lead after the first and added a run in the third, three in the fifth and two in the sixth.

The Eagles matched a season low in runs and had a season-worst two hits, but Parker isn’t discouraged by the results.

“These guys are going to be ready to go,” Parker said. “That kid threw one heck of a game and credit to him, but we’ve hit guys like that before and they know they can. They just have to make the right adjustment at the plate. … We’re going to get up early in the morning and hit at Pine Creek, get our time in at the plate, make our adjustments and talk about what we can do to win that game. We want to be the last guys wearing the uniform. That’s our goal.”