Panthers beginning to come together as a team

Panthers beginning to come together as a team

April 10, 2001

BY JIM THOMAS
Journal Sports Editor

"For every cloud there is a silver lining."

That old adage certainly holds true for the Montezuma-Cortez High School varsity baseball team under first-year head coach Chuck Cotter.

At times, the Panthers look very good and at other times they look very bad. It has been a rollercoaster type ride so far this season.

The Panthers are coming off a tough 14-9 setback to Montrose on Saturday, April 7, and also dropping a 10-2 decision to Central of Grand Junction on Friday, April 6, in Southwestern League action.

"It was a 2-0 game after five innings and then we had our one bad inning," Cotter said. "But we played much better than we did against Durango."

The Warriors had 13 hits against us, six of them were bunts, Cotter reported.

"They were good bunts. They put them down just right. This is well coached and very disciplined team (no. 1 team in Class 4A). They caught us off guard with the first couple. They earned their runs, we didn’t make mistakes," he added.

The Warriors' Nate Simms picked up his first win of the season, after two no-decision games his first two outings. The win for Simms boosted Central's record to 11-0.

Central's first two runs came in the third inning after Scott Stephen reached base on an error. Micah Dawson followed with a single and Jared Burek drove in two runs with a single to right field.

Stohler slapped a single. Dawson followed with a bunt single. Burek then bunted to load the bases. Central broke the game open with eight hits and six runs and an 8-0 lead at the end of the sixth inning.

Tony McComb pitched well for the Panthers but took the loss.

"Our defense made some nice plays. We hit the ball well with nobody standing there looking. We had a lot of fly ball outs. They started to play together," Cotter noted.

The Indians jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead so the Panthers were forced to play catchup early. A key play was when Richard Yake was called out at the plate for obstruction. Cotter said he stepped over their catcher’s arm to the plate but the umpire did not see it that way. The call hurt the Panthers and they never quite recovered.

Cotter reported the team hit the ball well.

Preston Cornett threw a good game until he started to get tired. It was 7-5 Montrose in the fifth when Cornett was relieved. The Indians got a lucky play off a bad bounce and that seemed to open the door. Montrose hit several balls barely out of reach of Panther defenders.

Cotter set four goals over the weekend, and for the most part, the team accomplished them.

"One was to strive to play at our highest level and I think we came pretty close. Another was to focus the entire two games and I think we did that. Another was to avoid backward K’s (called strikes) in the scorebook and we only had a couple of those all weekend. And our last goal was to play as a family. We watched the movie about the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates (incidentally, Willie Stargell, the father figure of that team, passed away from kidney failure on Monday, April 9)."

The Panthers host Farmington-Piedra Vista at 3 p.m. today, April 10, at Englehart Field in a nonconference game. They will resume Southwestern League play on Friday and Saturday, April 13-14, when they host Grand Junction High and Fruita-Monument, respectively, at 3:30 p.m. and 10:30 a.m.

Dolores County swept a pair of games from Dolores in Class 2A San Juan Basin League action this past Saturday in a twin bill played at Parque de Vida (moved because all-dirt Weber Park was wet). The Bulldogs won the opener 13-9 and took the nightcap 13-3 in five innings.

In the first game, the Bulldogs scored five runs in the bottom of the first inning and added two more in the second, three in the third, one in the fourth, and two in the sixth. Dolores accounted for its runs with two in the second, three in the third, one in the fourth, and three in the fifth.

Both teams had their troubles on the defensive side. Dolores committed six errors while Dove Creek made five.

Offensively, though, both teams did well. Dolores collected 10 hits while Dolores County had 16. Cullen Zion ripped three hits including a double and knocked in three runs. Colter Dunagan belted a solo homer in the second. Corey Hallam had a triple. Brandon Neely ripped three hits and picked up three runs batted in. James Smith, Terence Gardner, Keith Pierce and Chris Kail all had two hits. Dallas Coker slugged a solo homer in the sixth and Kyle Krafka knocked a double. Every Bulldog who wen to the plate got a hit and all but one Bear collected at least one hit. Dove Creek hit .421 as a team while Dolores hit .294, according to information from DCHS head coach Ken Soper.

Kevin Fane went the distance on the mound for Dolores and was tagged with the loss. He pitched six innings, fanned six batters, walked four, allowed 16 hits and 13 runs with four of those unearned. Gardner hurled four and two-thirds. He walked six and gave up five walks for the win. Coker threw the remainder of the game and picked up a save.

"We did not play well defensively. I thought it was not well played by both teams. Our hitting was good," Soper commented.

Dove Creek scored three times in the first, added five in the second, one in the third and fourth, and three in the fifth. Dolores pushed two over the plate in the top of the second, and one in the third.

Nick Martin cracked three hits for the Bears. Fane slapped a double, Aeson Reed belted a triple, and Dunagan hit a double. For Dove Creek, Pierce went four-for-four including hitting a two-run dinger in the first. Gardner followed with a solo shot in the inning. Krafka slapped three hits, including a triple. All Bulldog batters each got at leat one hit.

Zion went the distance and was tagged with the loss for the Bears. Dallas Daves went the distance for Dolores County and picked up the win. He worked five innings, fanned nine batters, and gave up four walks.

"We played a much better game the second game," Soper said.

The Bulldogs, 10-2 and 2-0, will play league rival Nucla at home (game moved to Dove Creek) at 1 p.m. today, April 10, at Weber Park Field. They will host San Juan High (Blanding, Utah) for a non-conference game at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 14. Dolores, 5-4 and 0-2, will visit Durango JVs in a non-conference game at 3 p.m. today and then host Nucla at 11 a.m. Saturday.