{"id":128591,"date":"2026-05-11T13:02:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T19:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/panthers-baseball-sends-off-seniors-with-another-league-title\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T11:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T17:18:15","slug":"panthers-baseball-sends-off-seniors-with-another-league-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/panthers-baseball-sends-off-seniors-with-another-league-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers baseball sends off seniors with another league title"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The M-CHS baseball team celebrates after capturing their fourth-straight Intermountain League title on Saturday at McAndrew Field. Photo courtesy of Robert Laymon<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

CORTEZ \u2013 If there were any doubts about the Panthers preparedness for the postseason, their body of work over the past four weeks should speak for itself.<\/p>\n

M-CHS (18-5, 8-0 3A IML) put the finishing touches on the regular season with an 11-game winning streak, eight of which came via the mercy rule, including a celebratory 10-0 and 18-3 Senior Day sweep of Centauri on Saturday to cap off a perfect Intermountain League run. In the process, the Panthers honored their six members of the Class of \u201926 in style, with all half-dozen continuing to provide the contributions that have made M-CHS such a tough customer this year.<\/p>\n

Second year head coach Jake Huff lauded his team\u2019s resilience through a slow start to the season, and the Panthers are humming into the playoffs as one of the projected top seeds and regional hosts in the 3A classification. M-CHS awaits their official playoff assignment after the regular season concludes Tuesday, but their vision is clear \u2013 make another trip to Greeley.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese boys have been through a lot together, and that\u2019s allowed them to create a goal of where they want to be, and winning the league is one step toward that,\u201d Huff said.<\/p>\n

Two days after overwhelming Bayfield to the tune of a 22-0, 20-0 sweep of the Wolverines, M-CHS didn\u2019t miss a beat against the visiting Falcons on Saturday. Junior Michael Krupa headlined the offensive production in game one, pushing across four runs on his co-team-high three hits. Senior Cory Carver also continued his second-half tear \u2013 the Falcons failed to retire the Panthers shortstop in his seven plate appearances between the two contests.<\/p>\n

Seniors Bodie Stiegelmeyer and Parker Conrad ignited the fireworks in game two with a home run apiece, while classmates Jaiden Istenes and Jaris McDonald enjoyed multihit performances as M-CHS batted around in the first inning and scored 11 times to put any drama to rest.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur boys played a tough preseason schedule, and we took some on the chin,\u201d said Huff. \u201cBut I think it served us well \u2013 they\u2019ve worked hard to get better, and it shows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior Kallan Wirth closed down the final three outs of game two on the mound \u2013 combining for a four inning no-hitter alongside sophomore Zye Kuenzler.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of our seniors bring something different to the team,\u201d Huff said. \u201cThey\u2019ve gelled well together, and are all going to great things moving forward \u2013 in baseball and in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Panthers look forward to hosting another regional site at McAndrew Field this upcoming weekend, the third such opportunity in the four-year careers of the soon-to-be graduating class.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited for these boys; they\u2019ve worked hard and deserve what they\u2019ve earned,\u201d said Huff after the program collected the program\u2019s fourth-straight IML title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

M-CHS outscores Centauri, Bayfield by combined 70-3 over final days of regular season<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":128592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6313],"tags":[38,39,28,37,36,29,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-128591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-2","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-newsletter","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128591","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=128591"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128714,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128591\/revisions\/128714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128591"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=128591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}