{"id":26130,"date":"2024-08-16T15:15:39","date_gmt":"2024-08-16T15:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/panthers-softball-seniors-ready-for-their-final-hurrah\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:33:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:33:44","slug":"panthers-softball-seniors-ready-for-their-final-hurrah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/panthers-softball-seniors-ready-for-their-final-hurrah\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers softball seniors ready for their final hurrah"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez pitcher Devyn Cornett winds up and delivers a pitch on Tuesday while playing Durango. Cornett pitched a complete and also had five RBIs in the win. (Cody Olivas\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

CORTEZ \u2013 To say that the Montezuma-Cortez Panthers softball team wasn\u2019t satisfied with its 2023 fall campaign would be a vast understatement.<\/p>\n

The Panthers want to make sure history doesn\u2019t repeat itself this season.<\/p>\n

Fifth-year head coach Anthony \u201cHippo\u201d Frost knows that the Panther cupboard is fully stocked with talent up and down the lineup card \u2013 a necessity if the Panthers\u2019 plans of vaulting back up to the top of the 3A Western Slope League come to fruition.<\/p>\n

A half-dozen seniors enter their final season with the orange-and-black.<\/p>\n

Abigail Coffey, Neveah Istenes, Julia West, Devyn Cornett, Aubrey Rutherford and Emily Carver form the Class of 2025 crew that spent the offseason honing its craft for the final hurrah.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re ready to get the ball rolling because we know we have some big shoes to fill,\u201d Istenes said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been focused since our offseason workouts began in January.\u201d<\/p>\n

Istenes leads a loaded returning infield, where the Panthers look to play shutdown defense behind Cornett and sophomore Jayden White. Cornett struck out approximately a batter per inning over her 100-plus innings in the circle.<\/p>\n

Coffey and West will help patrol the outfield for the Panthers, while a talented crew of underclassmen continue to find more reps within the starting nine, with the seniors showing them the ropes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really liked to see how our upperclassmen were coaching the younger players during our offseason, so that\u2019s helping us to keep moving in the right direction for years to come,\u201d Frost said of the leadership displayed by his seniors.<\/p>\n

The offense enjoyed plenty of hot stretches throughout the 2023 season, with the team batting nearly .400 as a unit. However, the Panthers ended the year dropping seven of its final nine games \u2013 including its Round of 32 playoff opener against Fort Lupton \u2013 and seeing visions of another league title and deep postseason run be ripped away.<\/p>\n

After seeing their span of four straight years above .500 come to a halt, the Panthers eye another winning season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coaches inspire confidence in us when we step to the plate. We know that we\u2019re a hitting team, so we know if we see a strike we\u2019re going to ready to go after it,\u201d Coffey said.<\/p>\n

Montezuma-Cortez, which went 11-13 last season, proved its potential for extra-base hits. By merely putting the ball in play, the Panthers apply pressure on opposing defenses with stolen bases.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re more mentally prepared when we step into the box, it\u2019s just you against the ball,\u201d Istenes said of the Panthers\u2019 focus at the plate.<\/p>\n

Montezuma-Cortez looks to make a statement early in the season, but the Panthers will have to do so away from the friendly confines of Englehart Field.<\/p>\n

Montezuma-Cortez, which opened its season Thursday in Cedaredge, face a staggering Western Slope road trip to Gunnison (Saturday), Durango (Aug. 27), Delta (Aug. 29) and Meeker (Aug. 31).<\/p>\n

The Panthers will play their first home game of the season on Sept. 10 against the Demons. The Panthers will also close out their regular season with five straight home dates.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Hippo reminds us to play with our heart and not with our head, and that\u2019s helped us to not focus on how stressful the game can be \u2013 and let us go day-by-day and continue to have fun,\u201d said West, who led the team in stolen bases last year. \u201cWe have a lot more drive this season and we\u2019re all working to the same goals \u2013 so out on the field, we\u2019re all sisters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coffey said the team \u201cdefinitely\u201d understands that 2024 will be the players\u2019 last opportunity they\u2019ll have together, adding they look to \u201ctake advantage of that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Influential Class of 2025 prepped to lead Montezuma-Cortez to big goals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,642,36,596],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-26130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-high-school-sports","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-softball"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26130","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=26130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79239,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26130\/revisions\/79239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26130"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=26130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}