MEEKER I This past weekend the Meeker Cowboys’ baseball team took to the road for the last away games of the regular season – taking on the Paonia Eagles in a doubleheader.
The day began with senior Ben Fitzgibbons giving an inspirational and motivational speech to his teammates about coming together to get some wins after last week’s two losses.
The first game was played by starters Scott and Alex Smith, Ben Fitzgibbons, Nate Walsh, Dylan Mobley, Tanner Matrisciano, Jeremy Musgrave, Kenny Kohls and Matt Frantz.
The game started with two runs by Paonia in the first inning and another in the second, with no score in the third. While at bat, Kohls was hit in the hand by a pitch in the third inning.
The fourth inning consisted of six more runs scored by the Eagles, resulting in the change of pitcher from Musgrave to Frantz after Musgrave had thrown 67 pitches
After Meeker attempted more runs in the fifth inning, assisted by senior Nate Walsh’s hit by pitch to the ribs resulting in a walk, Frantz threw another five pitches with no score, to finish out the fifth inning. The mercy rule was invoked to end the game with Paonia winning 11-0.
The second game started out strong, with the only change in the lineup being junior Chevy Mohr in for Frantz. Alex Smith pitched the entire game, throwing 90 pitches before the game was over.
The Cowboys scored four runs in the first inning by Matrisciano, Musgrave, Scott Smith and Walsh, who was brought in by RBIs made by Mobley and Mohr. These were accompanied by Paonia’s first three runs.
The remainder of the game played out much like the first, with the Eagles scoring another run in the second inning, and three more in the third. While the fourth inning had no score, the fifth inning when finished, resulted in Paonia scoring another seven runs. This led to the mercy rule being called again with the final score at 14-4 in favor of Paonia.
Both games contained many great hits and many players on base for the Cowboys, but they were unable to turn the bases into runs.
On Saturday, the Cowboys take to the diamond at their own home field for the first time of the season against Rangely.