Delta coaches Luis Meza, center, and Clayton Curtis congratulate 152-pound senior Hunter Brasfield after an upset win sent him into the 4A Region 4 semifinals.
Hotchkiss senior Joe Boyle controls Ruben Chagoya of Basalt to win a 3A Region 1 title. He is one of 7 Hotchkiss state qualifiers.
Hotchkiss and Paonia boys will square off this week on the basketball courts. Both are 6-4 in league play.
Delta senior Brooke Taylor scores two of her 12 points against Summit after grabbing an offensive rebound.
Paonia 195-pounder Tyler “TK” Kendall sets Rangely’s Drew Collins up for a pin.
Paonia freshman Bo Pipher sets TJ Richard of North Park up for a pin in Saturday’s regional semifinal round. He is one of 13 Paonia wrestlers headed to state!
Surrounded by coaches and his dad, Conner Beard signs Letter of Intent to play football for the University of Nebraska Kearney.
Hotchkiss' Jacobe Galley signed a Letter of Intent to play football and study engineering at Colorado Mesa University.
Hotchkiss senior Cody Bartlett signed his National Letter of Intent to run cross-country for Hawaii Pacific University.
Delta first baseman Bry Music wowed the crowd last week with this over the shoulder catch of a foul ball that was hit by an Eagle Valley player. Delta split a doubleheader with the Lady Devils and finished the year at 2-4 and 7-11 overall.
Delta had just one softball game scheduled for this past week, but a rained out game in Gypsum after one inning was resumed in Delta as a doubleheader format on Friday (Oct. 5). The Panthers eventually lost that game 11-10 but won the second contest 8-2.
The split leaves Delta at the bottom of 4A WSL standings at 1-5 and 7-11.
Eagle Valley finished just above the Panthers with a 2-4 and 7-11 slate.
At the top of the standings is Palisade (6-0 and 12-7) followed by Rifle (3-3 and 9-9-1).
In the first game, Delta had earned a 1-0 lead in Gypsum only to have the game postponed and rescheduled for last Friday (Oct. 5) in Delta.
The Panthers extended their lead by three with a pair of runs in the second and five more in the third to make it 8-0 with Eagle Valley coming to bat in the third.
Eagle Valley found ways to score eight runs and tie the game before the third inning could be completed. All eight runs were unearned according to Delta coaches.
Delta regained the lead with two runs in the fifth. Eagle Valley plated one run giving the Panthers a 10-9 lead.
Neither team scored in the sixth. The Lady Devils managed to score two runs in the bottom of the seventh to win 11-10.
Delta's Tierra Higgs had four RBIs on two hits in four at bats with a triple. Keillie Womack was 3-4 with a double and Kasha Culver was 2-5 with two RBIs. Bry Musick hit a home run for the Panthers.
Higgs was the losing pitcher even though she registered 10 strikeouts in the game.
Game two was a different story for Delta. The game was tied after two innings of play but not for long.
After a run in the top of the third gave Eagle Valley a short-lived 2-1 lead, the Panthers erupted for four runs in their half of the fourth to take a 4-2 lead.
Delta added insurance runs in the fourth (one run) and fifth (two runs) and then played solid defense to win the game 8-2.
Higgs took the win and finished the season with a 5-6 record.
Culver's 2-4 performance at the plate led Delta's offense with one RBI and a pair of doubles. Higgs was 2-4 with an RBI and a double, and Ashley Ortega had two hits in four plate appearances and one RBI.
