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Six Panther baseball players named to all-league team

Larry Banman
Sky-Hi News sports corespondent
Grand County, CO Colorado

Middle Park High School’s baseball team wrapped up its season by garnering a number of post-season awards.

Six players from the Panther baseball squad were named to the Frontier League All-Conference team. Leading the way was junior Mitch Franek, who was selected to the first team and was further honored as the Frontier League player of the year.

He was joined on the first team by seniors Stetson Sabados and Matt Hydrusko. Sabados was the Middle Park second baseman while Hydrusko was the team’s primary catcher and pitched some games for the Panthers.



Senior Shelby Garrett, who played center field for the Panthers was a second-team selection. Earning honorable mention honors were sophomore Cort Brennan and freshman Tyler Franek.

In addition to those honors, Sabados and Hydrusko will be playing in the Colorado All-Star game, scheduled to be played at 5 p.m. this Saturday, June 6 in a game hosted by Bishop Machabeuf.



The Panthers won the Frontier League in dramatic fashion when they defeated Bennett High School on a walk-off homerun hit by Hydrusko. Leading off the bottom of the seventh inning, Hydrusko hit a 3-0 offering over the fence to help Middle Park complete a regular season record of 15-2.

Middle Park entered the state playoffs as the 12th seed in a 32-team field. The Panthers traveled to Olathe, where there were defeated 5-4 in extra innings by Bishop Machabeuf High School.

For the season, Sabados led the team in hitting with 29 hits and a .547 batting average. Also hitting over .400 for Middle Park were Hydrusko (.512), Mitch Franek (.500), Brennan (.500), Garrett (.469) and Tyler Franek (.459).

Hydrusko led the team in home runs with four while Jordan Reynolds smacked two round-trippers and Garrett and Mitch Franek each hit one long ball for the season. Mitch Franek led the team in RBIs with 20 while Garrett (18), Sabados (17), Hydrusko (16), Reynolds (13), Brennan (13), Johnny Stensvad (11) and Tyler Franek (10) were all in double digits in that category.

Mitch Franek led the team in pitching with a 7-0 mark while Reynolds and Hydrusko both picked up two wins for the Panthers.

Coach James Newberry said he was proud of the way the team performed this season. He is looking forward to next year. Despite losing the seniors, Newberry said the Panthers have a good group of young players that will continue to improve and develop as ballplayers.


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