Friday was to be forgotten.
After getting drilled by the Fruita Monument Wildcats in a run-rule shortened 12-0 blowout on Friday, the Montezuma-Cortez Panthers hoped to push the game out of their minds and move on to the second matchup against Fruita on Saturday.
“We’re going to ignore the scoreboard,” M-CHS head coach Travis Greenlee said of the team’s strategy. “We’re going to go up and have good at bats and make them throw more pitches and we’re going to be more disciplined as far as looking for our pitch.”
The focus on staying patient at the plate came after the Panthers summoned just one base hit and Fruita senior Devon Canup needed just 58 pitches to finish off M-CHS in five innings on Friday.
And on Saturday, the Panthers piled up 13 hits and gave the league-leading Wildcats (10-4, 5-1 5A/4A Southwestern League) a scare down the stretch.
Senior Aron Engel drove in Coby Baer with a triple in the second inning for the Panthers’ first run in the contest, and then Ian Roberson and Cole Herrman each added an RBI in the fourth inning to make it a 6-3 game in favor of the Wildcats.
M-CHS loaded the bases with one out to start the fifth inning, but coming on in relief, Fruita senior Brett Nelson retired Aron Engel and Roberson in order to get out of the jam unscathed.
The Panthers’ confidence appeared to waver as they trudged back to the dugout after stranding three potential runs.
“You try to shift their focus,” Greenlee said, explaining how he handled the situation. “It’s frustrating. We’ve got to do our job and score a run there. We had too many opportunities – and we had other opportunities in this game – where we get guys on early and we just don’t do our job to get them around.”
The Panthers left nine runners on base in the contest, and they had runners on second and third with no outs in the sixth inning, but were again unable to plate any runs.
Finally, in the seventh inning, M-CHS started a rally.
Senior Andrew Laymon walked to begin the inning, and then Coby Baer singled and later swiped second to put runners on second and third.
Coming up with another big hit, Aron Engel knocked in both runners with a shot to center field and Roberson followed with a double to right.
Isiah Pena grounded out, but drove in Engel for the Panthers final run, and then Fruita retired Herrman and Alec Trennepohl to cut the rally short and hold on for a 9-6 win.
“I think that’s the best baseball team that we’ll play in this league, and we’ve shown that we can hang with them,” Greenlee said after the game. “We were in it and had an opportunity there at the end to get done what we needed to.”
“We didn’t quite get there,” he continued. “But I think we can pull a lot of good things from this game.”
