While the Montezuma-Cortez High School baseball team made a handful of impressive plays during two home losses to Bayfield High School on April 20, highlights for the Panthers were few and far between.
Playing a significant role in M-CHS’s 11-0 loss in the opening game of the doubleheader was the pitching of Bayfield senior Hayden Farmer, who did not allow any runs and yielded just two hits in five innings.
The Panthers’ lone hits came from senior Ryan Medina and junior Tristan York, who opened the bottom of the first inning with an infield single up the middle. Farmer’s fastball proved difficult for M-CHS hitters, however.
“(Farmer) didn’t really have a lot of movement, but his (fastball) was really a factor,” York said. “It was just speed.”
While Farmer hummed through batters, M-CHS remained close during the first two innings, thanks to sophomore starting pitcher Ty Blackmer, who mixed off-speed pitches with well-placed fastballs to keep Bayfield hitters off balance.
A spate of errors by Panthers’ fielders in the third inning allowed Bayfield to score seven runs, however. Senior relief pitcher Clayton Yoder entered the game in the top of the 4th inning and yielded four earned runs over two innings of work and Bayfield secured a five-inning mercy rule victory.
“I think (the errors in the field) were all mental,” York said. “We got in our own heads after we made a couple of mistakes and then we just kept making them. I thought (Ty Blackmer) pitched well though. I liked his movement on the ball and his confidence was also really good.”
In the second game, M-CHS received more offense, but struggled to limit the Wolverines’ powerful offense and ultimately lost, 17-4.
Senior Alec Demko drove in four runs for Bayfield, and senior Max McGhehey had three hits and three RBIs for the Wolverines. Statistics for M-CHS were not available as of The Journal’s press deadline.
With its record at 6-6 overall and 1-3 in the Intermountain League, M-CHS will look to pick up a pair of non-league victories when it faces Roaring Fork High School in Carbondale on April 23. The Panthers will then play a key league doubleheader on the road against Pagosa Springs on April 27.