After losing to the Durango Demons, 11-0, on Tuesday in Durango, the Montezuma-Cortez Panthers hosted Durango on Friday for a rematch.
Unfortunately for the home team, the second matchup yielded the same result, as Durango again won, 11-0.
Sophomore Jasen Engel started on the mound for M-CHS, and he was consistent and efficient out of the gate.
Through four innings, Engel allowed just five hits, walked none and only two of the Demons’ runs were earned.
The other two runs came with two outs on plays that should have been inning ending, but instead, errors allowed Durango to score and continue to bat.
“With two outs, there’s almost a little bit of a let down,” M-CHS head coach Travis Greenlee said of his team’s late-inning errors. “But with two outs, you’ve got to get dirty and get that third out and get out of the inning.”
Leading 4-0 to start the fifth inning, Durango senior Kyle Duran led off with a home run over the left-center field fence to start the rally. Tyler Ruetschle later drove in two runs with a triple and Dakota Padoven and Max Hyson also batted in runs during the seven-run inning to pull away for good.
After four solid innings, Engel got knocked around a bit in the fifth and Cutter Mathews came in to record the final out.
Engel finished with 4 2/3 innings, allowed nine hits and six earned runs, walked two and struck out two.
“He did a great job, and even there late in the game, he was still doing a great job,” said Greenlee. “He was throwing to contact, the wind was just carrying it a little more than usual and we missed some plays behind him. But he had a great outing today and kept us in the game through the majority of it, we just let it get away from us late.”
Engel was good, but Dylan Carlson was even better.
The Durango senior faced 19 batters, struck out 11 and allowed just four hits in the five-inning shutout.
Not only did Carlson go without allowing a walk, but no M-CHS hitter ever had a three-ball count.
Greenlee said that he felt the Panthers chased too many pitches, but that they also watched too many third strikes.
“This week, we’ve been a little bit reserved and a little bit nervous up there,” he said. “And we’re not going up there with that confidence that we should be, because we’ve got some great hitters.”
Senior Andrew Laymon led the Panthers with two hits on the day – including the ground-rule double he smoked over the center field fence on one hop – and Jasen Engel and Cordell Baer each singled to account for M-CHS’ four total hits.
The loss drops the Panthers to 3-7 on the season and 0-2 in the Southwestern League, but they will look to bounce back on Monday in a home game against Bayfield (6-3) at 3 p.m.