At the end of the afternoon on Friday, April 26, the Panther varsity baseball players were coming off another big win. By early Saturday afternoon, April 28, the team was feeling very humbled.

Montezuma-Cortez High School defeated Grand Junction High, a team that had not defeated for years and years, 8-5 in Southwest League play at Parque de Vida. The Panthers lost 15-0 in five innings to Central of Grand Junction the next day at Parque de Vida.

"I coached there (at GJHS) for five years and I know Cortez never won and we did not beat them last year," MCHS head coach Jeff Bollinger commented. "This win means a lot to me. He (coach Mantlo) was my mentor and I wanted to show him that I learned a thing or two. I don’t mean that in a bad way, but I wanted to show him that I learned a lot from him. This was a big win for the program here."

The Tigers took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning when Richard Isiah walked and later scored on a single by Don Clement. Nick Finley knocked in Clement a moment later. Cortez came right back in the bottom of the frame to tie the game. Randon Cornett slapped a double and Matt Ruggles singled him home. Josh Knapp picked up a run batted in with a single.

MCHS took the lead 3-2 with a run in the bottom of the second. Bryce Tanner led off with a double and scored on a single by Ruggles. They increased their lead to 5-2 with two more runs in the third. Josh Cornett singled and later scored on a balk. Matt Betts, who singled, came home on a double by Tanner.

Grand Junction scored in the top of the fourth when Cody Bangaman singled, stole second and later scored on a single by Keith Jenkins. Cortez answered back with three runs in the bottom of the inning. Ruggles, Tony McComb, and Josh Cornett all scored. The Panthers took advantage of four walks in the frame. Two runs scored on wild pitches and the other on a passed ball.

The Tigers pushed two runs over the plate in the top of the seventh. Jenkins ripped a lead-off double and Clement knocked him in with another double. Clement scored from third a few minutes later on a double-steal play.

Caleb Coate started and got into the fourth with the lead when he was relieved by ace Josh Cornett. Coate got the win and Cornett finished up and picked up the save. Gary Blackburn started and was tagged with the loss for the Tigers.

But things didn’t go so well the next morning against Central of Grand Junction, the no. 2-ranked Class 4A team.

Central pitcher Jason Martinez threw a one-hit shutout to lead the Warriors to the easy win over the Panthers. Martinez (8-0) only needed 85 pitches, struck out 12 and walked none.

The Panthers' Josh Knapp broke up the no-hitter with a single up the middle in the third inning. Ryan Loyd was the losing pitcher for Cortez.

The Warriors scored five runs in the first inning, four in the second and added six more in the third.

J.C. Jensen hit a three-run triple in the second inning. Dylan Coleman was 2-for-3 with a RBI. Mike Johnson had a RBI triple and Jared Burek was 3-for-3 with a double.