{"id":129641,"date":"2026-05-18T17:34:57","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T23:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/blistering-bats-help-panthers-cruise-to-regional-title-advance-to-state-tournament\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T11:06:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T17:06:17","slug":"blistering-bats-help-panthers-cruise-to-regional-title-advance-to-state-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/blistering-bats-help-panthers-cruise-to-regional-title-advance-to-state-tournament\/","title":{"rendered":"Blistering bats help Panthers cruise to regional title, advance to state tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"M-CHS
M-CHS senior Jaris McDonald fires a pitch in the Panthers regional tournament game against Pagosa Springs at McAndrew Field on Saturday. (Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

CORTEZ \u2013 The Panthers to-do list is getting shorter with each passing weekend. Just a week after claiming the program\u2019s fourth-straight league title, M-CHS checked off the next box from their preseason goals \u2013 win their regional.<\/p>\n

Second-year head coach Jake Huff\u2019s team overcame a slow start in game one, briefly trailing in the early innings before erupting in the fifth frame to pull away with a 14-4 victory over No. 30 Berthoud. Then, the 3A No. 3 Panthers (20-5) carried the hot bats into the regional final against league foe No. 19 Pagosa Springs, never allowing the Pirates to generate any sparks in a smothering 13-0 win.<\/p>\n

After junior catcher Easton Pixler snagged a pop-up for the final out in the mercy-rule shortened victory, the Panthers piled around the mound to celebrate, knowing that they\u2019d return to Greeley for the third time in four years.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Panthers celebrate the final out in their regional tournament game against Pagosa Springs at McAndrew Field on Saturday. (Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Playing in high-stakes ball games has become old hat for the half-dozen seniors that picked up a 20-win season for the third time. That experience paid off for M-CHS, as they looked like the more composed team under the pressure cooker of single-elimination baseball.<\/p>\n

Junior Tegan Mestas took the ball in game one and battled his way through four innings, allowing just five base runners before being lifted to begin to fifth inning with a 6-3 lead. Junior Michael Krupa took to the hill and preserved the lead in the top half of the inning, thanks in part to some solid defense. Sophomore left fielder Brennan Powell threw out Spartan Anderson Austin trying to stretch a single into a double to keep M-CHS in front 6-4.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when the M-CHS offense took over \u2013 the Panthers collected five doubles on the afternoon \u2013 several coming in the decisive fifth inning. After sophomore Zye Kuenzler, senior Jaiden Istenes, and senior Bodie Stiegelmeyer loaded the bases with nobody out, senior Parker Conrad drilled a ground-rule double into the gap in right-center, plating two. Powell followed with a double of his own into left field, and suddenly the Panthers had a 10-4 cushion.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the beginning of the game, we might have been a little nervous,\u201d said Conrad before classmate Kallan Wirth added, \u201cbut once we started hitting, everybody hits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior Cory Carver singled and stole second before senior Jaris McDonald provided a sacrifice fly and junior Easton Pixler\u2019s single pushed across the sixth run in the inning.<\/p>\n

\"M-CHS
M-CHS senior Jaiden Istenes rounds second base in the Panthers regional tournament game against Pagosa Springs at McAndrew Field on Saturday. (Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Berthoud\u2019s last gasp saw the Spartans get runners on second and third with no outs, only for Krupa to strike out the next two batters to end the threat. Carver and McDonald provided back-to-back RBI singles in the home half of the sixth inning, with the latter giving M-CHS the mercy-rule walk-off.<\/p>\n

M-CHS made sure that game one\u2019s early drama didn\u2019t repeat itself in the regional final. McDonald set down the first six Pagosa Springs batters in order, while M-CHS scored eight times in the opening two frames to put the Pirates out of reach. The M-CHS seniors accounted for 10 of the team\u2019s 13 runs, led by Istenes, Conrad and Wirth\u2019s combined seven runs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a group that\u2019s been together since first and second grade, so we\u2019re always having fun out there,\u201d said Wirth, before Conrad chimed in, \u201cwhen we\u2019re having fun, that\u2019s when we\u2019re at our best.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Huff was able to get his bench an opportunity to savor the regional experience either as a baserunner or with a plate appearance before McDonald closed out his five-inning two-hitter and the orange-and-black mob hoisted the 3A Region 3 champions plaque.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur pitchers went out there and shoved it\u201d said Wirth of the pitching staff\u2019s solid afternoon only allowing six hits, \u201cour whole goal is to go throw first-pitch strikes.\u201d<\/p>\n

M-CHS enters the state tournament as the No. 3 seed and will face No. 6 seed D\u2019Evelyn (18-7) at noon on Friday, May 22, from University HS in Greeley. The winner of that contest faces the winner of No. 2 Eaton and No. 7 Elizabeth later that afternoon. The Panthers hope to be one of the final four teams left standing at the end of the weekend, which would advance them to the championship weekend on May 29-30.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a big accomplishment \u2013 going to state for a third time,\u201d said Conrad, \u201cand hopefully this year we\u2019ll be able to make a run at it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

M-CHS takes down Berthoud, Pagosa Springs in front of home crowd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":129642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6313],"tags":[38,39,28,37,36,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-129641","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-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129641","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=129641"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129746,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129641\/revisions\/129746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129641"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=129641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}