If you listen close enough, you can hear the humorous chatterings of Legacy senior Ethan Sanchez out in center field.

“We’re the Mexicans on the team. So, we have our funny sayings,” Sanchez said standing next to pitcher Braidon Brown after their 3-2 win over Fairview on Wednesday evening. His giant grin never fades. “Just keeping that fun mentality.”

The 5A No. 13 Lightning (11-4, 6-0 5A Granite Peaks League) are having a hoot: Not losing in a month certainly helps.

Their 10th straight win of the spring came against another team that’s owned the month of April, No. 20 Fairview (9-7, 6-1). In rare, nail-biting fashion (they’d outscored teams by 101 runs in their previous nine wins), they made enough winning plays to edge the Knights, taking the sole lead of the league with 2 1/2 weeks left in the regular season. Sanchez and Brown led the way.

As one of the best bats in the state, Sanchez got another hit — the 10th time in 11 games he’s had at least one — as well as another RBI — his 27 driven-in runs are tied for the third-most in 5A. But it was his dazzling catch in the outfield that had everyone talking afterward. Including Knights coach David Castillo.

“Their center fielder made a hell of a play,” Castillo said of it.

With the Knights up 1-0, and with one on and two out in the second inning, Fairview catcher Jack Espiritu-Niswonger’s hard-ripped liner to center looked destined to pad the lead. If Sanchez let up, at least one run would’ve scored. And if his full-extension, head-first dive didn’t pan out, Castillo believed it would have been a two-run, inside-the-park home run.

“I know that kid, Jack,” Sanchez said.

“He’s a really good hitter and I knew what he was capable of. But at the end of the day, I’m not letting that ball fall.”

“Those plays are tough, they hurt,” added Espiritu-Niswonger, a Dartmouth commit. “Sometimes they make great plays and sometimes they don’t.”

Sanchez tied the game at 1-1 with a single in the next inning, and it stayed that way as Brown relieved starter Max Harbridge with two on and nobody out in the fourth.

Brown escaped that jam with two strikeouts and a flyout.

He retired his first nine batters before he was given a 3-1 lead in sixth — a bobbled ball in the infield allowed two runs to score on a sharp ground ball from sophomore Lucas Kelnhofer.

The Knights got one back when Leo Muth tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly in the seventh. But that was it off Brown. The final out came on a flyout to — who else? — Sanchez.

“I just went up there thinking, ‘we got this,’” said Brown, who allowed one run and struck out four to improve to 3-0 on the season. His ERA is now a miniscule 1.19 in 17 2/3 innings. “I just went after them.”

Legacy beat Fairview for the fourth straight year, dating back to 2021. But if you ask the Knights, this one felt different.

The freshmen and few sophomores who were at the core of their four-win 2023 campaign are now upperclassmen. They matured in a much-improved 2024, when they finished 12-12, and after noting their hard work over the offseason, they’ve taken another big step forward in 2025.

“We’re just battling these good teams, and we have the confidence that we know we can win against them,” said junior ace pitcher Jackson Wier, who allowed one unearned run in five strong innings against the Lightning. His ERA, like Brown’s, is barely there — a 1.21 mark in 29 frames. “We could’ve won against Legacy. We can win against Broomfield.”

The Knights are at Skyline on Thursday before they host 5A No. 10 Broomfield on Saturday. Legacy is home against No. 16 Erie on Saturday before its rivalry game against the Eagles next Tuesday.