Young Monticello baseball and softball teams get 2024 season underway with several games
by Rhett Sifford
Sports Editor
The Monticello High School baseball team got their first win of the season 22-3 over Dolores on Tuesday, March 26. The Bears are technically fielding a “JV” team in 2024.
They are prohibited from participating in varsity competition by Colorado State rule after not fielding a varsity team for the past four years.
Prior to the win the Buckaroos suffered a close loss in Nucla 3-2 on March 19. They were swept by Duchesne in a 2A East Doubleheader 12-2 and 11-0.
Through the first five games of the season the Monticello boys are 1-4 overall and 0-3 in region play. They are ranked 15th in the initial 2A RPI standings which were revealed on Monday, April 1.
Freshmen Cache Young and Triston Felix are leading the Bucks’ offensive attack. The pair accounts for 14 of the team’s 21 runs driven in with seven apiece.
Felix has five hits in his first 12 at bats of the season for a solid .417 batting average and he’s scored four runs himself. Young has four hits in 12 at bats and has scored three runs. Both players have two doubles each.
Sophomore Kooper Nielson and freshman Arturo Gutierrez have two RBIs apiece. Gutierrez is 5-for-12 on the year and leads the team with seven runs scored. Nielson is 3-for-12 with one run scored.
Jackson Keyes, Mason Atwood, and Zac Thayn have driven in one run apiece for Monticello. Keyes and Atwood have scored five runs each and Thayn has scored four.
Young leads the team so far with four stolen bases. Nielson and Gutierrez have two apiece, while Jaeden Camacho and Thayn have both nabbed one each.
Gutierrez leads the team far and away defensively with 40 putouts in the first four games of the year. Young has six, and Felix and Keyes have four each.
Felix has handled most of the work on the mound so far with 17.2 innings pitched. He has allowed 20 hits and 21 earned runs while striking out an impressive 33 batters and walking 11.
The Buckaroos were set for three straight games on the road at the beginning of the week. They traveled to Salina to take on North Sevier in a 2A East doubleheader on Tuesday, April 2.
On Tuesday, April 9 the team will hop in the bus for a short trip to Dove Creek for a non-region showdown with the rival Bulldogs.
Softball
The Monticello softball team is 0-4 to start the season after back-to-back doubleheader sweeps at the hands of Duchesne on March 26 and Piute on March 29.
Statistics are only available for the first two games against Duchesne. In those games Nicole Francom, Gracey Bylilly, and Taylor Barry got one hit apiece.
Francom hit a triple and Bylilly drove in the Lady Buckaroos’ only run. Bylilly and Barry both stole one base each. Madi Snyder led the team with seven putouts against the Lady Eagles. Barry had four and Bylilly collected three.
On the mound Taylor Barry struck out six of the batters she faced in the two losses, allowing 15 hits and 24 runs in 6.1 innings of work.
It’s rivalry week for the girls this week. They faced the San Juan Lady Broncos in Blanding on Tuesday, April 2.
They’ll travel to Moab on Thursday April 4 to play the Grand County Lady Red Devils. Next Tuesday, April 9 the team returns home to host Altamont in a 2A Central doubleheader.