Panthers drop 2 to Eagles

RANGELY I The Paonia Eagles traveled to Rangely and took two wins from the hometown Panthers in a doubleheader Saturday. The Panthers have one game left in the regular season before district playoffs.
Rangely lost the first game, then gave up 13 runs in the first three innings of the second game, falling 17-3 after five innings of play.
“We were in the first game and just needed a couple of key hits, which we didn’t get,” head coach Paul Fortunato said.
The Panthers gave up one run in each of the first three innings before getting on the scoreboard themselves with one run in the third.
The Eagles answered with three more runs in the fourth inning and Rangely scored two in the fifth to pull within three. Both teams scored a run in the sixth and neither team scored in the seventh, leaving the Panthers three runs short of the Eagles.
“We need to come up with some more timely hitting and plays,” Fortunato said. “The guys are working hard for me, they just need to make some adjustments.”
In the second game, Rangely scored all three of their runs in the first inning and still trailed 5-3. Then, the Eagles took over, scoring four runs in each of the next two innings, and they put the game away in the fifth.
Rangely will host Hotchkiss in the final game of the regular season Friday with the first game starting at 2 p.m.
The Panthers currently have a 3-7 league record and are 4-11 overall.
“We are just trying to make the right adjustments before playoffs,” Fortunato said.