No. 7 Montrose opens season with win over Montezuma-Cortez
Preseason seventh-ranked Montrose faced Montezuma-Cortez on Friday and the Indians won 19-3 in four innings.
The Indians opened with three runs in the first inning with Gage Wareham and Rocco Manuel had RBI hits while Nolin Boone held Montezuma-Cortez scoreless in the first frame. Cortez scored one in the top of the second and Ty Blackmer scored on a steal of home. The Indians added two more in the bottom of the second and led 5-1 after two innings. Cortez scored two in top of the third to make it 5-3. John T. Carver had a two-run double and the Indians exploded for eight runs to break the game open.
“I think we played a great game,” Montrose senior Keagan Goodwin said. “Everyone did their job and we executed like we needed to. But it wasn’t even close to perfect. And we will be working hard in practice. My boys busted their butts and we will continue to do that. We’re going to keep bringing it to anyone we play and we do that through being a single unit, and being the toughest team on the field.”
Goodwin and Wareham had RBI singles, Zeke Steenburgen was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and the Indians led 13-3 after three innings. Boone struck out two batters in the top of the fourth. The Indians scored six runs in the bottom of the fourth to make the final score 19-3. Torrie Eckerman had a two run home run and Boone had a two-run single.
“Kids played good,” Montrose coach Landon Wareham said. “Got another game tomorrow. Need to come ready to go. We are too young and inexperienced not to show up ready to play ball.”
Steenburgen finished with three RBIs, Wareham had three hits and three RBIs and David Dominquez had two hits and three RBIs. Boone struck out five batters.
“We played a great game early with Ernie Padilla on the mound and Montrose put it on us after we went to our pen,” Montezuma-Cortez coach Tim Passell said. “We had some positive momentum off the very good pitcher Nolin Boone. We are definitely getting off to a late start and bit behind due to our guys barely getting off the football field less than two weeks ago. We are playing baseball so it’s much better than where we were last year. We got a few hard hits off a very good pitcher.
“Our sophomore catcher, Braden hit one off the wall and that was a great two out hit bringing us a couple of runs. Looking forward to tomorrow (Saturday) as we will have our ace Ty Blackmer going for us against Battle Mountain.”
