ALAMOSA — The Trojans and Panthers met half way on Thursday with a game in Alamosa. Antonito the designated road team took both games, winning game one by a score of 26-15 in five innings and the second game 13-1 in four innings.

Antonito (3-5) opened the season on a low note with two straight losses before their double header with Centennial where they would pick up their first win of the season. The Trojans would forfeit two games to Manzanola entering their contest with the Panthers on Thursday.

Sierra Grande (2-2) started their season on an opposite streak with two forfeit wins over Cripple Creek-Victor entering Thursday.

The first game of the day was very light on defense, Sierra Grande took the opening rally at the bottom of the first, cycling their order for an early 10 nothing lead. Two innings later and Antonito would return with their own batting order cycling volley to the tune of 12 runs to take the lead.

The Panthers would begin to claw back at the bottom of the inning when Veronica Durgan would bat in Dylan Milner to make it a one run game. Antonito would up the ante at the top of the fourth inning. Zach Velasquez got in on a wild pitch, followed by a triple to left field from Josh Duran who got in on an error. Austin Dominguez would get in line for run number three of the inning for the Trojans when his pop fly got dropped getting him safely to first. Josh Lucero batted Duran in with a single to give Antonito a 15-11 lead.

Down by four the Panthers would tie the game to close the inning.  Antonito’s Austin Dominguez would walk Christopher Nix. Nix was followed on base by Elora Escalante. The Panthers would send in Alexis Lobato in to courtesy run for Escalante. Mathias Gilmartin would get Nix home and advance Lobato with a double to right field before Lobato advanced herself home on a wild pitch to cut the lead to 2 runs. Dylan Milner batted in Gilmartin closing it to just one. And with a wild pitch Marcos Martinez-Martinez knotted the game up at 15 apiece.

The Trojans cinched up the win with another monster inning posting 11 runs to seal the game in five innings.

In game two Antonito would start hot right away with an eight run inning that sent their entire batting order to the plate. With the lead Antonito’s Josh Duran helped clamp down from the mound with two strike-outs in the Panthers next at-bat. The Panthers would get on the board in the second inning when Veronica Durgan scored Dylan Milner on a base hit.  Three more Josh Duran strike-outs and the Trojans would go back to work. 

Josh Duran would spearhead the attack with a triple that turned into an in-park homerun thanks to a Panthers error at third base.  Sierra Grande’s Dylan Milner walked Austin Dominguez and Josh Lucero bringing Aiden Fletcher to the plate. With two teammates on, Fletcher knocked a base clearing double to right field giving Antonito an 11-1 lead after three.  Three more strikeouts from Duran and the Trojans were back at bat.

Angel Trujillo and Josh Duran closed the game with two more runs to make it 13-1.

Antonito will get a nice little break as their next action isn’t until April 13th when they host No. 3 Cotopaxi (4-2) for a double-header. Game 1 is scheduled for 11 a.m. Sierra Grande goes right back to work with a game against Dove Creek (5-2) this Saturday at 12:30 p.m. in Cotopaxi.