You\u2019d need all 10 of your fingers to count the number of consecutive Southwestern League titles the Fruita Monument High School baseball team has won.<\/p>\n
The 10th straight title came Friday after the Wildcats defeated Grand Junction 6-3 at Canyon View Park.<\/p>\n
The Tigers defeated Fruita Monument 5-4 on Tuesday to turn Friday\u2019s contest into a de facto league championship matchup. After Tuesdays loss, Wildcats coach Casey Sullivan told his team to re-center their focus, as they still had plenty to play for despite their emotional loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can go home and they can be mad, be upset, and rightfully so, they should be,\u201d Sullivan said after the Tuesday loss. \u201cBut tomorrow\u2019s a new day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fruita did well to show resiliency in the face of a tough defeat, and, according to the coach, used it as motivation for a good week of practice that ultimately culminated in Friday\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we were able to move past it,\u201d Sullivan said Friday. \u201cBut practice was different. We had a little different focus, especially from the offensive side of things.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wildcats wouldn\u2019t be beat twice in the week, and after scoring three runs in the third inning and two in the fourth, strong pitching from Gavin Cardoza led Fruita to a comfortable victory.<\/p>\n
Cardoza earned his fourth win of the season, allowing only one earned run in 6 2\/3 innings with five strikeouts. The junior pitched deep into the game\u2019s final inning before hitting the state-mandated 110-pitch limit and forcing Fruita Monument to turn to the bullpen for the final out. Cardoza lowered his season ERA to 2.81 in the win.<\/p>\n
Second baseman Jimmy Hawkins and right fielder Noah Brackett each recorded multiple hits for the Wildcats in the win. Shortstop Josh Weaver was the lone Fruita player to drive in multiple runs offensively, going 1 for 2 with a two-run double.<\/p>\n
\u201c(This win) means a lot,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cI\u2019m totally excited for the boys. They\u2019re the ones who put in all the work \u2014 they\u2019re the ones who throw, catch, and hit. Proud of those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Fruita Monument and Grand Junction await their opponents in the regional baseball tournaments \u2014 the Wildcats in Class 5A and the Tigers in 4A. The regional tournament brackets will be released by CHSAA on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You\u2019d need all 10 of your fingers to count the number of consecutive Southwestern League titles the Fruita…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[5,7921,2328,2304,4,2305,2303],"class_list":{"0":"post-16915","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-postseason","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-kentucky-wildcats-men","10":"tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","11":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-mlb-playoffs","14":"tag-mlb-postseason"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114485691976092687","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}