AURORA – How many emotional swings can you pack into a day?
The M-CHS Panthers rode a tidal wave of ups and downs through a nail-biting return trip to the 3A State Softball Tournament, picking up their first state tournament victory Friday in a raucous 18-17 win over No. 5 La Junta, before falling one inning shy of a state semifinal appearance with a 6-5 heartbreaker to No. 4 Sterling.
Head coach Anthony “Hippo” Frost had his squad ready for the occasion, with several of his starters having already made appearances on the state’s highest platform.
M-CHS opened the tournament as the No. 12 seed, but looked anything but an underdog against the 3A Tri Peaks League champion Tigers in the round of 16. In fact, it appeared as though the game would turn into a defensive struggle, as the contest entered the fourth inning in a 2-2 deadlock.
Then, the bats exploded in the Aurora Sports Complex, as the Panthers started to manufacture several consecutive huge rallies, beginning with five runs in the top of the fourth. La Junta answered right back with a five-spot of their own in the bottom half, but M-CHS put up six more in the fifth to take a 13-7 lead.
Junior starting pitcher Lizzie Likes posted a scoreless bottom of the fifth inning, and after the Panthers added two more runs in the top of the sixth, it appeared as though M-CHS would cruise to the win. However, La Junta would tighten things up again with four runs to pull within 15-11 heading to the final inning.
M-CHS (19-7) added three more runs in the top of the seventh, and would need every one, as senior Taiah Wilson came on in relief to try to close out the game. La Junta (19-6) would score six runs in the seventh, but the Panthers had just enough defense to cross the finish line with the 18-17 win.
All nine starters had multi-hit games, as the Panthers pummeled 23 hits in the contest, headlined by senior Koral Jackson’s four-hit performance, and Wilson’s three RBIs and a home run. Junior Rylee Hickman added three hits white freshman Navaeh Istenes also reached on three base knocks.
Panther pitching limited the very dangerous Madison Wiley to a lone base hit, while tagging the Tiger starter for 14 runs in her five innings of work.
M-CHS was the only lower seed to win in the opening round, and their victory propelled them to a rematch of their 2019 opening round loss against Sterling.
In a game that took on a totally different complexion from their slugfest in the opener, M-CHS would quiet Sterling’s bats through the opening innings as the Panthers slowly built a 5-2 lead.
However, the final three outs of the seventh inning proved to be the most difficult. Sterling (22-5) rallied to push across four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to flip the script and end the Panthers’ fantastic run in the postseason.
Six seniors saw their final action in orange-and-black on the Aurora Sports Complex softball diamond, capping off a string of four consecutive winning seasons with the program’s first state tournament victory in well over a decade.
The Panthers also celebrated a 3A Western Slope League title to go along with a campaign that will go down as one of the best in program history.
The state semifinals will pit the top four seeds against one another, as Sterling will take on top-seeded Lutheran on Saturday, Oct. 23rd, with the winner taking on the victor of the No. 2 Eaton and No. 3 University in the 3A state title game.
