Any baseball athlete understands failure is a part of the game regarding batting.

But Kaiden Carlson never received that message.

In Cheyenne Mountain’s 8-3 win at Rampart Park Baseball Field on Friday, Carlson finished 4-of-4 with three runs and three RBI for the Red-Tailed Hawks against Rampart.

“Going 4 for 4 is unbelievable,” Carlson said. “I’ve never done that in my life.”

After the Red-Tailed Hawks built a 2-1 lead heading to the top of the second, Carlson hit a double to left field to score Ryan O’Hearn and Jansen Roberts to make it 4-1.

Cheyenne Mountain added another run in the second to build a 5-1 lead over the Rams.

“Higher pitches are usually my sweet spot and he put it in a spot where I could hit it,” Carlson said. “I got on top of it and drove it to left field to bring in those two runs.”

Cheyenne Mountain built a 6-2 lead after the top of the third, but the Rams closed it to 6-3 in the bottom of the fourth.

Rampart loaded the bases with one out in the inning, but Charlie Scofield thwarted an opportunity for the Rams to score with an athletic play at first to end the inning.

“The hitter hit a line drive right over first base, and I jumped and caught it,” Schofield said. “Their runner was already headed to second, so I just tagged the bag and made the easy out for the double play. … Knowing that I made that play and stopped their momentum was huge. We came up and got some more runs.”

The Red-Tailed Hawks added another pair of runs, including an RBI single to center field from Carlson that scored Gavin Crawford and made it 7-3, Cheyenne Mountain, in the top of the sixth inning.

“I managed to see the ball really well [Friday,]” Carlson said. “I just wanted to put the ball in play and help my team for this win. I saw the ball right in the sweet spot and I was able to get the hit. …This is a big game for us. Getting a win over a 5A team will help with our rankings.”

But the Red-Tailed Hawks still needed to survive the Rams’ final three outs of the game.

Ace Elimes pitched the final inning for Cheyenne Mountain and earned a strikeout for the Red-Tailed Hawks.

But Cheyenne Mountain again spoiled an opportunity for the Rams to cut into the lead.

Rampart’s Justus Derickson hit a ball deep into the outfield, but O’Hearn tracked it down and snuffed out a potential single that would have put runners on first and third.

O’Hearn also caught the final out to end the contest.

“That shows how well we were playing today,” Scofield said. “Our outfield was amazing today, and they helped us put this game away. It was a great effort from the infield and outfield today and a solid game all around from our guys.”