Region 9 baseball: Top three teams all improve their stock with Tuesday wins

Pine View vs. Dixie, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Apr. 14, 2015 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — Desert Hills, Pine View and Cedar, sitting at 1-2-3 in Region 9, all got wins Tuesday night amid dust-blown fields and crazy pop flies.

The Thunder haven’t been winning big, but they do just keep winning and that’s what happened in a come-from-behind win over Canyon View. Pine View used a big inning to cruise past Dixie and get the road win. Cedar dropped Hurricane in a five inning affair. Here’s a recap of Tuesday’s action:

Desert Hills 6, Canyon View 5

Great defense has been a staple for the first-place Thunder, but some miscues in the field nearly cost D-Hills the game.

Desert-Hills-smcanyon-view-smLeading 3-1 heading into the seventh, Desert Hills committed three errors and allowed four runs to cross the plate on just one Canyon View hit.

But the Thunder saved the game in the bottom of the inning. Trey Winget singled, followed by a Braiden Irvin double. Brayson Hurdsman grounded out to second, scoring a run and making it 5-4. Wyatt Bendall was hit by a pitch to put the winning run aboard with one out.

A Chad Nelson single tied the game at 5-5 and put the potential winning run at third with still just one out. With Nelson on the move, Cam Winget then stepped up and hit a 1-1 ground ball to short. The Falcons fired the ball home, but it was too late as Bendall slid across the dish with the winning run.

Chad Nelson, file photo from Desert Hills vs. Snow Canyon, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Apr. 7, 2015 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Chad Nelson, file photo from Desert Hills vs. Snow Canyon, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Apr. 7, 2015 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

Nelson led the day with three hits, including a double, as Desert Hills pounded nine hits off of CV starter Zack Brinkerhoff. Irvin and Trey Winget had two hits each. Kayson Bowler pitched six innings and allowed just three hits and one earned run for DH. Irvin retired three batters in the seventh to get the victory.

Payton Higgins had two of CV’s three hits, including an RBI double.

The Thunder are alone in first place in the region with a 6-1 record (13-5 overall). DH has won eight of their last nine games. The Falcons are 4-5 in region (8-10 overall). The two teams will meet again Friday at 4 p.m. at Canyon View with Brayson Hurdsman (DH) and Ty Nielson (CV) as the likely starters.

Stats: cvdh41415

Pine View 10, Dixie 3

Hunter Hansen delivered a bases loaded double to break open a scoreless tie in the fourth inning, helping propel the Panthers to the road win.

Pine-view-smdixie-sm“We’ve been talking a lot about getting clutch hits in big situations and I just decided to get one,” Hansen said. “I just wanted to come up with a good swing. That double was it.”

Hunter Hansen for Pine View watches the flight of his fly ball, Pine View vs. Dixie, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Apr. 14, 2015 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Hunter Hansen for Pine View watches the flight of his fly ball, Pine View vs. Dixie, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Apr. 14, 2015 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

His slicing liner, which brought home three runs, flared down the left field line and landed fair by a few feet. Pine View coach Mike Gargano had the go sign on as Dakota Donovan, Brooks Barney and Kash Walker all came home. The Panthers added three more runs that inning and another in the fifth to give starter Donovan a huge 7-0 lead.

“It makes such a big difference when you can pitch with a big lead like that,” Donovan said. “You can just throw strikes and if someone gets a lead-off hit or something, it’s not that big a deal.”

Dixie pulled to within 7-3 in the bottom of the sixth on RBIs by Jaden Rawlings and Hobbs Nyberg and a Pine View error. But the Panthers put the game away in the top of the seventh with three more runs, including another double by Hansen.

“We were patient at the plate and that was key,” PV skipper Gargano said. “We were ready for the wind tonight, but there was also a chill out there. But I’m happy with the way the guys hung in there.”

Pine View starting pitcher Dakota Donovan, Pine View vs. Dixie, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Apr. 14, 2015 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Pine View starting pitcher Dakota Donovan, Pine View vs. Dixie, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Apr. 14, 2015 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

Donovan pitched six innings, allowing five hits and three earned runs. He struck out 10 and walked just two. Hansen and Ty Johnston had two hits each for the Panthers, who improve to 10-7 overall and 5-2 in region, one game behind Desert Hills.

Chaz Hansen had two hits for Dixie, which fell to 12-6 overall and 3-4 in region. The two teams will meet again Friday at 7 p.m. at Pine View with Harrison Goebel likely to start for PV and either Kody Hutchings or Colin Hutchings for Dixie..

Stats: pvdix41415

Cedar 10, Hurricane 0

Brecken Lewis allowed just one hit and his teammates produced enough runs to end the game via the mercy rule in the fifth inning.

The Redmen had 10 hits of their own, including a three-run double by Josh Boyer. Cedar has reeled off five straight wins after starting region play with a 1-3 record.

cedar-smhurricane-smTrey Esplin also had a double and Cedar scored three in the second inning, one in the third, one in the fourth and five in the fifth to end the game.

At 6-3 in region, the Redmen are in prime position to make the playoffs. Cedar is a game behind Desert Hills and percentage points behind Pine View, but two games or more ahead of the rest of the region. The Redmen, 14-4 overall, fell one game short of the 3A title game last season.

Hurricane, 5-11 and 0-7, will likely send Drake Hermansen to the mound and Cedar will likely counter with Dusty Hanna as the two teams will meet again Friday night in Hurricane.

Snow Canyon 9, Shadow Ridge (Nev.) 5

Jake Sargent scattered six hits over six innings and Brad Grisenti doubled twice as the Warriors picked up the non-league win.

Chance Thorkelson hit a solo homer and Jacob Frei tripled home a run as SC jumped out to a 6-0 lead and held on from there.

The Warriors, 12-5, play Skyline Saturday and have a two-game series with Dixie next week.

Stats: scsr41415

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @oldschoolag

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

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.