The Rifle Bears are on the road again on Saturday to play the Montezuma-Cortez Panthers at 11:00 a.m.
Rifle will head into Friday's matchup out to bounce back: they won a close one the last time they played, but unfortunately they suffered a serious change of fortune on Friday. They lost 11-3 to Durango.
Meanwhile, Montezuma-Cortez came tearing into last Tuesday's match with three straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 17.7 runs) and they left with even more momentum. They were the clear victor by a 17-1 margin over the Skiers. The result was nothing new for the Panthers, who have now won ten games by six runs or more so far this season.
Jayden White made a big impact no matter where she played. She looked comfortable on the mound, tossing three innings while giving up just one earned run off two hits. White was also solid in the batter's box, scoring a run while going 1-for-3.
In other batting news, Lexi Ruiz was a standout: she scored two runs and stole a base while going 2-for-3. The dominant performance also gave her a new career-high in hits. Another player making a difference was Devyn Cornett, who scored three runs and stole a base while going 2-for-2.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Montezuma-Cortez always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .667. That was just more of the same: they've now posted a OBP of .556 or higher in four consecutive contests.
Rifle now has a losing record at 8-9. As for Montezuma-Cortez, they pushed their record up to 11-8 with the win, which was their fourth straight at home.
Rifle came out on top in a nail-biter against Montezuma-Cortez in their previous matchup back in October of 2023, sneaking past 16-14. The rematch might be a little tougher for Rifle since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
