Roundup: Aspen girls lacrosse pounds Fruita

ASPEN – The Skiers built on their weekend sweep of Durango, dominating visiting Fruita Monument throughout in Tuesday’s 15-4 home win.

Delaney Conner and Allie Garrett each scored three goals to lead Aspen, which now is 9-2. Kylie Davis pitched in with two while Nevada Crandall, Ellie Parker, Olivia Porcaro, Isabelle Woodrow, Kelly Tick, Mary Beasley and Shannon Turbidy each found the net once.

“We’re really coming together as a team and moving the ball down field. Like my JV coach said, we are connecting the dots,” Skiers head coach Meredith Sauder said. “It was a very poised, confident, smooth Aspen lacrosse game. We were under control, which was nice.”

Goalkeeper Molly Kadota picked up nine saves for the Skiers, who host Grand Junction at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in what will be a de facto Mountain Conference championship game.

Junction pulled out an 11-9 victory the last time these two squads met.

CARBONDALE – The injuries and the exhaustion are mounting for an Aspen squad that has played five games in the last seven days. Still, the Skiers managed to pull out a victory Tuesday at Colorado Rocky Mountain School.

Aspen erased an early one-goal deficit with four first-half goals – one from Annie Graber and three from Keile Kropf, who now has 20 on the season – and withstood a late CRMS rally to pull out a 4-3 win.

The Skiers now are 8-5.

“Every day seems like match day. We’ve had one practice since we’ve been back from Ex-Ed. … I have no emotion left,” Aspen head coach John Gillies said. “We’re carrying a lot of injuries and are not healing. Players are now limping off the field.

“Our chances for a [3A Western Slope] title are gone, so our philosophy this week was to take these two games a bit easier. Then, let’s go out Thursday in our final home game and celebrate Lauren Anderson, our only senior, by beating Vail [Mountain School] and taking the title away from them.”

The Skiers kick off against the Gore Rangers at 4 p.m. Thursday. The two sides met Monday, when league-leader VMS pulled out a 3-0 win.

EL JEBEL – Daniel Munger had a strong day for the Aspen baseball team Tuesday, picking up two hits and surrendering just three earned runs in a complete-game effort on the mound.

He got little help, however. The rest of the Skiers lineup amassed just two hits, resulting in a 4-1 loss to Rifle in El Jebel.

“It’s a classic trade-off. Our defense comes to play, but our offense shuts down,” Aspen head coach Nate Grinzinger said. “I don’t understand why our bats weren’t on more today.”

Quinn Morehead tripled off Tristan Quigley to lead off the bottom of the first, then scored on a Lamont Gross single.

The bats largely went silent from there for the Skiers (4-12), who have lost three straight and six of their last seven.

The Bears went ahead for good with two runs in the sixth, then tacked on two more in the seventh inning. Cody Chick doubled and scored in the sixth, then drove in a run with another double in the seventh.

Aspen closes out the regular season with a road doubleheader at 11 a.m. and

1 p.m. Saturday against Roaring Fork.

jmaletz@aspentimes.com