MEEKER I For the first time in several years, the Meeker Cowboy baseball team advanced to post-season play. And although the Dolores Bears ended the Cowboys’ season with a 3-2 win in Cortez in the first round of the 2A state playoffs, Meeker coaches are excited about the future.
“The current players proved that not only is the post-season possible, but we belonged there,” head coach Jason Browning said of his team’s tournament play. “That was a big step for us as a program, and coach (Brian) Merrifield and I are very excited for the future.”
The Cowboys traveled to Cortez for the game against the Bears, where neither team scored until the sixth inning, when all five runs were scored.
“We played our best game of the season on defense,” Browning said. “Kenny Kohls (senior) was our pitcher and he threw five innings without any walks and only gave up two base hits, everything was on the ground or hit weakly in the air.”
The Cowboys scored in the top of the sixth inning, when junior Matt Frantz singled and was batted in by senior Tanner Matrisciano. Matrisciano later scored his team’s final run on a passed ball.
“We gave up a couple of hits and a couple of walks in the bottom of the sixth and they scored three runs,” Browning said. “In the seventh, we got the winning run on base but couldn’t score, so the game ended 3-2.”
Coach Browning was thankful for the dedication and path his seniors, Kohls, Matrisciano, Dylan Mobley, Chevy Mohr and Bruno Juarez, set his team on.
“It was a difficult season that ended well,” Browning said of his seniors’ season. “I appreciate the work they put in to set us up for the future.”