A win and a heartbreaking loss were the order of the day for Southwest League makeup baseball games played Tuesday, April 11, at Parque de Vida and Englehart fields for the Montezuma-Cortez High School varsity baseball team.

MCHS hosted Palisade that morning and played Fruita-Monument late that afternoon. The Panthers were originally scheduled to play the Bulldogs on March 31 but that game was washed out because of rain and snow. They rescheduled the game for the next morning and then were to play the Wildcats at the regular time. Rain and snow plus wet grounds at both fields forced the postponement.

The Panthers defeated Palisade 7-3 but fell to Fruita 13-7 in nine innings in Southwest League action.

Palisade got on the scoreboard in the top of the first inning of the game played at Parque de Vida. Brock Boyack walked, stole second, and then came home on a single by Jeremy Strain. The run became unearned when Strain hit a high pop up along the third baseline in foul territory and the ball was dropped, ala Charlie Brown style (hits glove then bounces out).

But the Panthers responded quickly, scoring in the bottom of the inning. Randon Cornett led off with a walk. Following two quick outs, he came home thanks to a throwing error.

Cortez went up 3-1 with two runs in the second. Matt Betts led off with a walk and then Kevin Wayman singled. Two outs later, Matt Ruggles cracks a single, scoring both runners.

The Panthers increased their lead to 6-1 in the top of the third. Betts tripled in Evan Frost who had doubled moments before. Wayman doubled in Betts and later scored on an error.

But the Bulldogs weren’t going to give up that easily. They scored twice when Josh Brown led off with a standup triple. Jared Schminke knocked a ground-rule double and he later scored on a fielder’s choice.

Cortez added an insurance run in the top of the sixth when Knapp tripled and Ruggles singled him home.

Josh Cornett went the distance on the mound and picked up the win. He struck out seven. Daniel Miller started for Palisade and was relieved by Clint Ostermiller in the third inning. With the exception of Cortez scoring its final run, Ostermiller shut down Cortez’ bats.

"We didn’t hit the ball last year when Cornett pitched," MCHS head coach Jeff Bollinger said following the game. "We never gave any of our pitchers help last year, but now are getting the money hits. We got the hits when we needed them. Josh pitched well."

The Panthers then took on Fruita later in the day at Englehart Field.

Fruita took a 4-0 lead in the second inning, capped by two-run single by B.J. Russell. The Panthers responded in the home half of the third when Knapp walked and later scored on a fielder’s choice.

FMHS went up 6-1 when Drew Reiners belted a two-run homer over the short left field fence. But the Panthers came back strong by scoring five times in the bottom of the inning. Knapp, Randon Cornett, Ruggles and Tony McComb all collected timely hits.

The game was deadlocked at 6-6 after seven regulation innings. The score remained that way until the ninth. Then Fruita took capitalized on two back-to-back errors, three hits and two walks as 11 batters went to the plate. The Wildcats pushed seven runs over the plate. The Panthers’ Ryan Loyd hit a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth in the more than three hour long game.

Caleb Coate started on the hill. He was relieved by Randon Cornett and McComb. Cornett took the loss.

"The pitchers threw great," Bollinger commented on the game. "Coate gave up four unearned runs and went into the fifth. Randon came and gave up a two-run homer but he still threw outstanding. And then McComb came in but he couldn’t get the job done."

Bollinger was surprised at how well the Wildcats played despite someone telling him they weren’t very good.

"Our sticks just weren’t there. We had 11 hits but we didn’t get the hits when we needed them. We just did not get the important hits. We had several chances to win in the seventh and eighth with runners on and our best hitters at the plate but they didn’t come through. We continuously gave them a chance and when that happens, something bad is going to happen and it did," Bollinger added.

Bollinger is pleased right now with the play of his club at this point in the season. The Panthers are 4-5 overall and 2-3 in league but more importantly have wins over Montrose and Palisade.