The RHS baseball team will host the Steamboat Sailors on March 23, weather permitting. | MATT SCOGGINS PHOTO
RANGELY I Mother Nature may not approve, but the 2022 high school baseball season is underway for the Rangely High School Panthers. Although the team has only been able to step foot on their home field one time this season, they have put in plenty of work on the asphalt parking lots and their indoor facilities. The ’22 season team has 14 members playing. Although the number of players is fewer than years past, Head Coach Jeremy Lohry feels, “a small group like this year’s team can come together and change the program’s culture for good and set the stage for years to come for RHS baseball.” The ’22 team is looking to improve its 5-9-1 record and 5-5-1 league record from the 2021 shortened season.
Leading the Panthers are numerous returning starters, including seniors Byron Mackay, Brent Cantrell, Keihlin Myers, Justin Cudo, Braxton Moore and Wyatt Tull. Myers and Cudo were both named to the ’21 2A Western Slope All-Conference team and will look to find themselves in the same realm at the end of the ’22 season. Myers led the Panthers in ’21 in batting average as he hit .575 with 23 hits, 12 RBI, and scoring 15 runs. Cudo finished the ’21 campaign with a .543 batting average while collecting 19 hits with eight RBIs while scoring 12 runs. Mackay will look to build a solid ’21 season as he hit .438 for his batting average. Mackay also had 14 hits with one homerun 10 RBIs, and he scored five runs. Brent Cantrell anticipates upping his average from last year, where he hit .300 with three hits, two RBIs, and scored three runs. Braxton Moore will look to build upon his first year of varsity experience as he hit .227 in 2021. Moore drove in three RBIs with five hits and scored three runs. Wyatt Tull is in his first year of varsity baseball and will help to add good defensive range to the Panthers outfield.
Two juniors return for the Panthers as Kevin Wren and Luis Quintana add to their athletic accomplishments at RHS. Wren led the Panthers in the ’21 season with 16 hits while accumulating a batting average of .410 and knocking in seven RBIs. Wren also scored 11 runs for the Panthers ’21 campaign. Luis Quintana completed an excellent sophomore season with an average of .364 with 12 hits, six RBIs, and seven runs scored.
Sophomores Dalton LeBleu, Dylan Smuts and Kobey Chism will help bolster the line-up as LeBleu and Chism are returning starters. LeBleu hit for a .333 average in his first year while knocking in three RBIs from four hits and scoring five runs. Chism, who will help catch and play middle infield for the Panthers, hit for an average of .292 with seven hits and scored five runs.
Three freshmen make up the rest of the team as Marcos Quintana, Landon Carlson, and Tristan Scott add depth to the pitching staff and batting line-up. Quintana will record playing time at first base and on the mound for his freshman season. Carlson will give the Panthers a left-handed pitcher for the first time since the 2013 season and fill in time in the outfield. Finally, Scott will accumulate time in the middle infield area and mound.
The Panthers were to open their ’22 season by hosting the Coal Ridge Titans on March 11, but Mother Nature had other plans for the Field of Dreams. This game has yet to be rescheduled as league games will take precedence in scheduling considerations. Still, the game will be played later in the season. The Panthers will enter spring break and then host the Sailors from Steamboat Springs High School on Wednesday, March 23, for a non-league double-header. The Panthers will then host the Nucla Mustangs on Friday, March 25, in double-header fashion to close out the opening month of play.
Special to the Herald Times
