{"id":105886,"date":"2016-04-01T17:38:14","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T23:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/panthers-bearded-ian-roberson-is-on-fire\/"},"modified":"2016-04-01T17:38:14","modified_gmt":"2016-04-01T23:38:14","slug":"panthers-bearded-ian-roberson-is-on-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/panthers-bearded-ian-roberson-is-on-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers\u2019 bearded Ian Roberson is on fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Ian
Ian Roberson grins after safely sliding into third base during the Panthers\u2019 win over Dove Creek last week.<\/span>Jardyn Angell\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Hunter Pence does not play baseball for the Montezuma-Cortez Panthers.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old outfielder suits up for the San Francisco Giants; so if you\u2019re taking in a Panthers game, don\u2019t be deceived.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not Pence on McAndrew Field \u2013 it\u2019s M-CHS senior Ian Roberson.<\/p>\n

But the two do look similar.<\/p>\n

They have similar builds and features \u2013 although Pence is taller \u2013 but it\u2019s Roberson\u2019s beard that most resembles the major leaguer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve actually had that since about eighth grade summer, for summer ball,\u201d he said. \u201cThen this last year after Christmas I started growing it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roberson said he was encouraged by teammates to grow out the bristles, and at its peak, his face-sweater was a sight to behold.<\/p>\n

Think Duck Dynasty meets James Harden.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the guys give him heck about it,\u201d said M-CHS head coach Travis Greenlee.<\/p>\n

Entering his fourth year at the helm, Greenlee has coached Roberson since his freshman year, adding, \u201cHe\u2019s full-speed all the time, gives you everything he\u2019s got, and he\u2019s a great kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

And of course, Greenlee also got a kick out of Roberson\u2019s beard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a picture in my mind from the game when he had the inside-the-park home run,\u201d he recalled chuckling. \u201cHe came in and slid and just red dirt filled in all over his face and all you could see was the white of his eyes behind the beard and the red dirt. I\u2019ll remember that forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

He may have to reminisce on the beard, because Roberson recently trimmed it, and he\u2019s unsure whether or not he\u2019ll unleash the locks once more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d he said laughing. \u201cMy mom doesn\u2019t want me to. She just thought it was a mess that needed to be cut off.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for now, the M-CHS senior is focused on growth on the field, not his face.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen some growth, obviously in some of the younger guys stepped up for the team,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd some of the older guys, we\u2019ve played together, so we know what to expect from each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

After starting the season with five straight losses, the Panthers have rattled off three consecutive wins against Pagosa Springs and Dove Creek.<\/p>\n

And Roberson is catching fire.<\/p>\n

Post beard-trim, the senior went 3-for-5 with three runs and three RBIs in a 21-8 win over the Pirates, and was a combined 5-for-8 with five runs and seven RBIs in double-header wins over Dove Creek last week.<\/p>\n

Leading M-CHS in hits (13) and RBIs (14) \u2013 and second in runs scored (11) \u2013 Roberson and the Panthers will look to continue their hot-streak as they begin league play against Durango in an away contest today at 4 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

M-CHS senior Ian Roberson (and Hunter Pence look-alike) is on fire<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":105887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5770],"tags":[21,60],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-105886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-sports","tag-cortez","tag-montezuma-county"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105886"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=105886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}