{"id":25317,"date":"2024-10-17T10:59:49","date_gmt":"2024-10-17T16:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-softball-learns-postseason-path\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:14:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:14:14","slug":"montezuma-cortez-softball-learns-postseason-path","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-softball-learns-postseason-path\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez softball learns postseason path"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image naviga-align-left alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=c23dc178-e1b7-57a4-beff-abe58d7308c5&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2571\" alt=\"Panthers senior Emily Carver rounds second after hitting a double in a contest at Englehart Field against Delta High School. Sam Green\/Special to The Journal\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Panthers senior Emily Carver rounds second after hitting a double in a contest at Englehart Field against Delta High School. Sam Green\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>For the past couple of weeks after clinching their Western Slope League title, the Montezuma-Cortez softball team knew that their postseason qualification was assured \u2013 it was just a matter of which foes would stand in their way of a state qualification berth.<\/p>\n<p>The long wait is over, M-CHS landed the No. 16 seed in the 3A state regional tournament field, and will travel to Eaton for their regional semifinal on Saturday, Oct. 19 at 12:15 p.m. The Panthers (13-9) will face off with No. 17 Sterling (12-9-2) in their regional opener with a state tournament qualification bid on the line.<\/p>\n<p>The winner of the matchup between the Panthers and Tigers will face either the defending state champion No. 1 seed Eaton or No. 32 Kennedy in the regional final round at 2:30 p.m. While the program\u2019s first regional title is on the minds of head coach Anthony \u201cHippo\u201d Frost\u2019s club when they make the trip to north-central Colorado, a victory against Sterling would guarantee the Panthers another week together, and the school\u2019s first state appearance since 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Six seniors guide the Panthers on their travels, with senior Devyn Cornett looking to take the ball in the circle for the win-or-go-home matchup against Sterling. The Tigers, who finished fifth in the Patriot League, are led by a strong junior class including the team\u2019s leading hitter Makenzie Beck.<\/p>\n<p>A win would propel the Panthers to the Aurora Sports Complex on the following weekend, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 25-26 for the single-elimination 3A state tournament bracket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Panthers head to Eaton for regional round<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25318,"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-25317","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\/25317","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=25317"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78889,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25317\/revisions\/78889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25317"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}