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Rifle softball suffers home loss to tough Palisade team

Big innings for the visiting Palisade Bulldogs softball team in the second and fifth sealed the deal Tuesday, as Rifle dropped the 4A conference home stand 12-8.

However, the Bears moved to 4-3 on the season by virtue of a forfeit win to visiting 5A Fruita-Monument on Aug. 29. Rifle is 0-1 in league play after the Palisade loss.

Rifle was consistent in its scoring in the Tuesday match, with two runs each in the first, third and fourth, and with a mini two-run rally in the sixth inning. Individual game stats for the Bears had not yet been reported to MaxPreps as of Wednesday morning.



The Bulldogs were paced by junior Alysha Franco and sophomore Jordan Bauer with three hits each. Just half of the Bulldogs’ runs came off hits.

Fruita-Monument topped Rifle 13-3 in the weekend contest, but handed the non-conference win to Rifle in a forfeit. Rifle had seven hits on the day. Junior Emma Poole and sophomore Hailey Worton had two hits each. Poole also had 2 RBIs and Worton had the other RBI for the Bears.



Next up for Rifle is a 6 p.m. Thursday non-conference game at home versus 3A Basalt.

Cross country roundup

Coal Ridge High School sophomore Tyler Parker notched wins in his first two races of the season, at the Grand Mesa County Line Trails Cross Country Meet on Aug. 21, and the Meeker Invitational on Aug. 28.

Held on the Grand Mesa, at 10,800 feet elevation, the Line Trails meet consisted of a 5K loop. Parker notched his first career high school cross country win with a time of 21:32 on the rough, rocky course, recovering from a fall in the last kilometer to finish in front of the boys race.

Mikayla Cheney, a Coal Ridge sophomore, led the girls field to notch a victory with a time of 25:26. Titans runner Natalie Smythe was 10th.

In addition to Coal Ridge, the meet was hosted by Delta High School and attended by Paonia, Hotchkiss, Grand Valley, Ouray and Caprock Academy High Schools.

Coal Ridge boys had four runners in the top 20, with junior Will Parra in 14th, senior Jack Price in 16th, and junior Erick Monroy in 17th. The Coal Ridge boys finished third in the team competition.

Grand Valley’s top runner was senior Keaton Jansen in sixth, with a time of 22:56, and sophomore Kade Sackett was 13th in 25:06.

Last weekend, Coal Ridge’s Parker was also the top runner at the Meeker Invitational, winning with a time of 18:17. Monroy finished 14th in 21:32, and the Titans boys were second as a team with strong performances by Price, Ethan Poland and Dallin Karen.

Grand Valley’s Jansen was fourth in 20:02, and Sackett was 12th in 21:25 at the Meeker meeting.

The Titans girls were at the Connected Lakes Championships on Aug. 28, where Cheney was third in 21:38, and junior Ayala Araceli was sixth in 22:30.

Meanwhile, Rifle’s cross country team competed at the Basalt Longhorn Invitational at Crown Mountain Park in El Jebel.

For the girls, Rifle’s top runner was senior Karisa Coombs, finishing 19th overall in 22:15. Junior Audrey Abbott was 35th in 24:47.

And, for the boys, Rifle’s top runner was junior Jace Coller, finishing 18th overall in 19:44. Other Bears finishers were sophomore Saul Ramirez (30th, 21:34), sophomore Jacob Coombs (31st, 21:34) and junior Josue DeLoera (33rd, 22:02).


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