The Panthers softball team has made October postseason runs an annual tradition.
For a sixth consecutive season, Montezuma-Cortez High School is in the regional field, having collected a second straight league title. League champion M-CHS and Delta headline a list of six Western Slope League teams to make it into the field of 32 for the opening rounds of the postseason.
M-CHS (15-6, 10-2 3A WSL) rounded out the regular season with a rigorous homestand against four different postseason-caliber opponents, taking a sweep of Basalt in their penultimate doubleheader to assure themselves a share of the league title.
With five straight winning seasons, the Panthers look to qualify for their fourth state tournament appearance during that span. They enter the regional round as the No. 15 seed in the field, and will travel to No. 2 Brush for the 3A Region 5 tournament.
The Panthers face their opening round opponent, No. 18 Lyons, on Saturday, Oct. 15 in northeast Colorado, with the winner moving on to face the victor of the host Beetdiggers and No. 31 Cedaredge.
While the Panthers found themselves in a few shootouts in the final week of the regular season, the offense continues to produce numbers that can help them hang with the state’s best teams. Batting .443 as a team, seniors Rylee Hickman and Lizzie Likes combined for 84 hits and 63 RBIs, while leading the team in most offensive categories.
Sophomore Nevaeh Istenes enjoyed a breakout season, driving in 36 runs while classmate Aubrey Rutherford finished third on the team (behind Hickman and Likes) with 14 extra-base hits.
Also part of the deep sophomore class, catcher Emily Carver scored 27 runs, while the Panthers showed their ability to move base-runners up and down the lineup with consistent approaches at the plate.
In the circle, sophomore Devon Cornett became the most prominent starter for head coach Anthony “Hippo” Frost’s crew, as the right-hander collected a 7-3 record, with 53 strikeouts in 79 innings of work.
On account of their youth, outside of the seniors, the playoff appearance will be the debut for many of the M-CHS starters, as the Panthers take on the Lions – the 10th-place team in the rigorous 3A/4A Patriot League standings.
Lyons (9-10, 3-9 3A/4A Patriot) boasts one of the most dynamic players in the classification in junior pitcher Ceci Chiaravalle, who has taken the majority of the Lions’ innings in the circle, while leading the team with a .553 batting average.
A win for the Panthers over Lyons would send M-CHS to their second consecutive state appearance, and fourth in the past five years. If the Panthers advance, their regional title game against either Brush or Cedaredge would contribute to the overall seeding of the 16-team field at the Aurora Sports Park over the weekend of Oct. 21-22 – as all eight regional site winners guarantee themselves a top-eight seed. Two teams will qualify from each of the eight regional sites to compose the tournament field. Last year, the Panthers not only qualified, but also picked up their first state tournament win in school history.
