Region 9 baseball: Red-hot Redmen use pitching gem to complete sweep of Dixie

Colin Hutchings steals second base for Dixie as the ball gets away from Cedars Rykker Tom, Cedar vs. Dixie, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Apr. 10, 2015 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

ST. GEORGE – Kyler Carrizosa and Dusty Hanna combined to hold the host Dixie Flyers to one run on three hits as the Cedar Redmen swept the Flyers to advance to 5-3 in region play.

cedar-smdixie-sm“No doubt this sweep is big,” said Cedar head coach Eric Fieldsted. “Dixie is a great team that came into this series playing very well. The sweep was tremendous. Tonight we were able to capitalize on their mistakes. Things went our way.”

Cedar got on the board first in the top of the second inning. Brecken Lewis scored on a wild pitch to put the Redmen up 1-0. In the bottom half of that inning Dixie matched the score on a sacrifice fly by shortstop Drew Bailey that scored Hobbs Nyberg.

ASP_8425
Cedar starting pitcher Kyler Carrizosa (6), Cedar vs. Dixie, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Apr. 10, 2015 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

“I got into trouble a few times early,” said Carrizosa. “My pitches were rising out of the zone. I had to make a concerted effort to calm myself and get the pitches down.”

Dixie starting pitcher Colin Hutchings also suffered from early control issues. In the top of the third, both of Cedar’s runs came on Hutchings pitches. After Rykker Tom opened the inning with a single, Trey Esplin doubled to place runners at second and third. Tom then scored on a passed ball with Esplin going to third. Esplin would score three pitches later, this time on a wild pitch. Cedar also had seven batters get on base after being hit by pitch for the game.

“That was definitely atypical of them,” said Carrizosa. “They rarely make the mistakes that they made tonight. Sweeping a good team is big for us. It really puts four teams in the hunt for the region title.”

Carrizosa helped himself out in the fourth inning by hitting a triple. He scored later on the third base hit from Tom, who was perfect on the night. Carrizosa scored another insurance run in the sixth. After drawing a walk to get on base, he was singled in a few batters later by Esplin.

Cedar's Ryan Slack (17) heads for second base as the ball gets into the outfield, Cedar vs. Dixie, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Apr. 10, 2015 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Cedar’s Ryan Slack (17) heads for second base as the ball gets into the outfield, Cedar vs. Dixie, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Apr. 10, 2015 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

“Trey Esplin and Rykker Tom both came up big for us tonight at the plate” said Fieldsted. “They both had RBIs, but also set us up to take advantage of the wild pitches and passed balls.”

With the victory, Cedar improves to 13-4 overall and 5-3 in region games. The Redmen, who have won four straight after dropping three of their first four region games, have a two-game set with Hurricane next week.

With the loss, Dixie falls to 12-5 overall and 3-3 in region play. The Flyers will play a home-and-home against Pine View next week.

Desert Hills 9, Snow Canyon 7

Braiden Irvin and Cam Winget, two of the heroes of Tuesday’s Thunder win over Snow Canyon, victimized the Warriors once again in DH’s two-run victory.

Desert-Hills-smsnow-canyon-smIrvin had three hits and scored twice, plus came on in relief and saved the game for Desert Hills by allowing no runs in the final two innings. Winget, who homered to break a tie Tuesday night, had two hits and four RBIs Friday night as the Thunder held on for the win.

D-Hills led 9-2 and it took the impressive relief pitching of Irvin to finally slam the door on the Warriors, who rallied for five runs in the fifth inning to make the game interesting.

Braiden Irvin
Braiden Irvin

Both starting pitchers had their issues, but also didn’t get a ton of help from their defenses. Brayson Hurdsman went five innings for the Thunder, allowing eight hits and five walks. But he battled and four of the seven runs that crossed the plate on his watch were unearned.

Nick Dolce started for Snow Canyon and allowed 11 hits in four innings. But six of the nine runs that scored on him were unearned. Ike Jorgensen finished the game for SC, allowing two hits and no runs in the fifth and sixth.

The game was tied at 2-2 when the Thunder struck for seven runs in the fourth inning. Snow Canyon responded the next inning with its big rally to cut it to 9-7, but couldn’t solve Irvin on the mound.

There were 23 hits, 11 walks and 5 errors in the game, producing the combined 16 runs.

Desert Hills has won seven of its last eight games and sits at 5-1 in region play, 12-5 overall. The Thunder, who are in first place, a game ahead of Pine View, host Canyon View next Tuesday, with a game at CV Friday afternoon.

Snow Canyon, which started region play 3-1, has now lost four straight, making the Warriors 3-5 and three games behind DH. SC has a region bye next week and finishes the year with two-games each against Dixie and Hurricane.

The Warriors got two hits each from Austin Deming, Chance Thorkleson and Brad Grisenti.

Stats: scdh41015

Canyon View 9, Hurricane 1

Keaton Kringlen has been on a tear lately and his two extra-base hits helped lift the Falcons to their second straight win.

canyon-view-smhurricane-smKringlen doubled and tripled and Canyon View pounded out 12 hits at home Friday afternoon. Payton Higgins also tripled and CV improved to 4-4 in Region 9 play (8-9 overall). The Falcons had lost three straight after getting swept by Pine View, but turned things around against the Tigers.

Canyon View's Keaton Kringlen. File photo from Canyon View vs. Snow Canyon, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 27, 2015 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Canyon View’s Keaton Kringlen. File photo from Canyon View vs. Snow Canyon, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 27, 2015 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

Ty Nielson got the win for Canyon View, which has Desert Hills next week and Dixie to close the season (with a bye week in between).

Drake Hermansen took the loss on the mound for HHS, though he did hit a home run to help his team. The Tigers, 5-10 overall and 0-6 in region, play Cedar next week for two games, starting with Tuesday’s game at CHS.

Region 9 Standings
Desert Hills  5-1
Pine View  4-2
Cedar   5-3
Dixie  3-3
Canyon View  4-4
Snow Canyon  3-5
Hurricane  0-6

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @oldschoolag

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2015, all rights reserved.

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