{"id":15191,"date":"2025-12-18T15:14:55","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T22:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-standout-cory-carver-to-play-at-navy\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:45:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:45:18","slug":"montezuma-cortez-standout-cory-carver-to-play-at-navy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-standout-cory-carver-to-play-at-navy\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez standout Cory Carver to play at Navy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cory
Cory Carver throws to first base after tagging second for a double play for the Panthers Saturday.Sam Green\/Special to The Journal<\/span>Sam Green\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

CORTEZ \u2013 One of the biggest lessons Montezuma-Cortez senior Cory Carver learned as a varsity starter is to \u201cnever get too high or too low.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mentality changed throughout my career \u2013 I started to play within myself and not show my emotions \u2013 and all the other parts of my game began to show after that,\u201d Carver said.<\/p>\n

That approach has helped Carver \u201cride the waves\u201d as a player \u2013 a phrase that will take on new meaning after graduation this spring.<\/p>\n

With one season left in a decorated prep career, Carver signed a letter of intent to play at the U.S. Naval Academy next year.<\/p>\n

Nearly two dozen schools showed interest, but Navy stood out as the front-runner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coaches were a big selling point for me \u2013 all of them are ex-professional players, and I trust that they\u2019re going to continue developing me,\u201d Carver said.<\/p>\n

Carver hopes to anchor Navy\u2019s infield at shortstop when he suits up in 2027.<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez senior Cory Carver signs his letter of intent to play baseball for the U.S. Naval Academy, joined by his parents and coaches. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span>Sam Green\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019ve had plenty of coaches along the way who have told me to set my goals high \u2013 so I\u2019ve always had this idea that I could be a Division I player,\u201d Carver said.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll join a Navy team that regularly contends for Patriot League titles and aims to return to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2016.<\/p>\n

In his first three seasons, Carver helped the Panthers win three Intermountain League titles, make two state tournament appearances and set school records for wins with 22 in 2023 and 23 in 2025.<\/p>\n

A career .477 hitter, Carver has topped .450 each season, with 137 hits, 81 RBIs and a .916 fielding percentage.<\/p>\n

His steady play earned three all-state honors, including first team as a junior.<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez senior Cory Carver celebrates with family after signing to play baseball for the U.S. Naval Academy. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span>Sam Green\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Carver began in soccer but switched to baseball at age 10 after joining a travel team.<\/p>\n

Since committing this fall and signing with the Midshipmen, Carver is relieved and ready to focus on helping the Panthers chase a state title this spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been building with this team for the last four years, so we feel like this is our year,\u201d Carver said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Panthers shortstop hopes to carry success to Division I Midshipmen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,39,28,37,36],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15191","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=15191"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20925,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15191\/revisions\/20925"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15191"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}