Region 9 baseball: Snow Canyon, Pine View split leads to 3-way tie with Desert Hills for first

Written by Rich Allen
April 27, 2021
Snow Canyon baseball's Jackson Ence slides safely into second as Pine View's Brandon Roundy picks the throw, Pine View High School, St. George, Utah, April 23, 2021 | Photo by Rich Allen, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — A dramatic sweep between two of Region 9’s top baseball teams led to a three-way tie among the standings with just two weeks to go in the regional season.

Snow Canyon baseball at Pine View, Pine View High School, St. George, Utah, April 23, 2021 | Photo by Rich Allen, St. George News

The Pine View Panthers, the last team to draw a regional loss, returned to the top of the standings after splitting with Snow Canyon. The Panthers rebounded from a dominant Warriors win on Tuesday to eek out a victory of their own in a pitching duel on Friday. Elsewhere, Desert Hills swept Canyon View to join the two at the top with matching 8-2 records while Crimson Cliffs took both games against Cedar to stay just one game back from the front of the pack. Dixie swept Hurricane to solidify its spot above .500.

Only four Region 9 contests remain for each team across two series. Key matchups in the penultimate week of the season include Pine View and Desert Hills matching up in a bid for sole possession of first and Crimson Cliffs trying to knock off Snow Canyon to join the leaders. Also, the winless Falcons and Tigers meet up with one of them at long last finding the win column.

Here are scores and recaps of the action from week five of the Region 9 baseball season:

Pine View, Snow Canyon split to tie atop standings

April 20: Snow Canyon 13, Pine View 1

Friday: Pine View 5, Snow Canyon 3

The Panthers rebounded from a rout on April 20 with a dominant pitching performance on Friday to tie with the Warriors and return Pine View to the top of the regional standings.

Snow Canyon baseball at Pine View, Pine View High School, St. George, Utah, April 23, 2021 | Photo by Rich Allen, St. George News

In game one at Snow Canyon, Pine View scored in the top of the first but watched the Warriors bats tie it in the bottom half, take the lead in the second and run away with the 10-run rule by the fifth inning.

Luke Iverson and Hunter Stubbs hit back-to-back singles off Isaac Lyon to start the game. Iverson scored on an error with Brock Roundy at the plate.

Luke Anderson drew a leadoff walk to start the bottom half before Mason Strong doubled him in. Anderson drove in a pair with a double of his own in the second inning.

The Warriors then proceeded to score 10 runs off eight hits in the third and fourth, including a three-run homer from Anderson in the fourth. Meanwhile, Lyon held Pine View to a lone hit over the final four innings to stunt their offense. Lyon earned the five-inning win by striking out seven and walking one.

Anderson drove in six and was one of four Warriors with multi-hit games.

Game two featured a premier pitching matchup between Traton Staheli for the Panthers and Carston Herman for the Warriors.

Snow Canyon jumped out to an early 3-1 lead after the third inning after Strong hit another RBI double and scored on a single by Mayze Mosher and an error.

Pine View jumped out in front with a four-run rally off Herman in the fifth. Staheli drove in a pair on a line-drive double to left with one out, bringing the score to 5-3. 

On the mound, Staheli struck out nine over five innings but had to be removed before the sixth after the Warriors ran up his pitch count. Cade Iverson, who Snow Canyon cut two years ago, came in and shut down the Warriors over the final two innings. He retired the side in order in the sixth on just five pitches.

Landon Frei struck out a pair in 1.2 relief innings for Snow Canyon, as well.

Luke Iverson was the only Panther with multiple hits. Mosher was the lone Warrior to reach the feat. The teams combined for only 11 hits with six going to the Panthers. Herman takes his first Region 9 loss of the season.

Both teams have 8-2 regional records with two weeks left to play. Pine View, at 14-3 overall, hosts the third-leg of the tie for first place, Desert Hills, on Tuesday. Snow Canyon hosts Crimson Cliffs.

Desert Hills joins pack at the top with sweep of Canyon View

April 20: Desert Hills 10, Canyon View 0

Friday: Desert Hills 6, Canyon View 1

Kaden Terry twirled a two-hitter as the Thunder took game one at home.

Desert Hills baseball at Canyon View, Cedar City, Utah, April 23, 2021 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

Terry allowed only a pair of singles, a walk and a reached-on-error, totaling four base runners for Canyon View over the five-inning contest.

Meanwhile, Desert Hills’ bats put up two in the first, four in the third and four in the fifth to earn the walk-off 10-run rule win. Reggie Newby went 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles, two RBIs and two runs scored. Luke Orchard and Cole DeCastro each had a pair of knocks as well. Jackson Turley drove in Justin Judkins with a single into left to score the game winning run.

Up north, Peyton Gubler’s 11 strikeouts over seven innings carried Desert Hills. Gubler’s excellence kept the Thunder in the game as they struggled to find any offense of Canyon View starter Davin Roundy. 

Roundy walked six but kept Desert Hills off the board until the fifth inning. He allowed only three hits total over his 4.2 innings, removed after issuing his third walk of the inning in the fifth to load the bases after already yielding a pair of runs.

Those scores gave Desert Hills a 2-1 lead after Brayden Floyd singled to start the bottom of the third for Canyon View and advanced to third on an error. He scored on a single by Hutson Slack. 

The one-run deficit held until Desert Hills piled on four on Falcons reliever Jake Garrett in the seventh. Garrett issued three walks before giving up a triple to Karson Irvin and a homer to Joey Brooks.

Desert Hills moved to 8-2 in Region 9 and 18-2 overall to tie with Snow Canyon and Pine View at the top of the standings. The Thunder travel to Pine View on Tuesday.

Canyon View continues to seek its first regional win at 0-10 and 4-16 overall. The Falcons take on the also-winless Hurricane Tigers on the road next.

Mustangs stay in the hunt with sweep of Cedar

April 20: Crimson Cliffs 9, Cedar 4

Friday: Crimson Cliffs 10, Cedar 8

The fourth-place Mustangs remain just one win out of first place in Region 9 after taking both games against the Reds.

Cedar baseball at Crimson Cliffs, Crimson Cliffs High School, Washington city, Utah, April 20, 2021 | Photo by Rich Allen, St. George News / Cedar City News

In Washington on Tuesday, Crimson got to Cedar starter Miles Topham for seven runs over 3.1 innings, capped by a four-spot in the fourth that Topham and reliever Braden France split earned runs credit over. The top three in the Mustangs lineup — Logan West, Ty Maynard and Trey Evans — went a combined 5-for-9. West and Maynard had multi-hit games.

Topham made an impact before he even took the mound, driving in a pair of runs with a single in the top of the first. 

Crimson got within one in the bottom half and took the lead with a pair of scores in the second. Cedar started a comeback bid with two runs in the fifth but only to make it a 9-4 game.

Brexten Starley struck out eight over five innings and Aaron Morris and Petey Soto allowed no hits in a combined two-inning relief effort.

In game two, a 6-1 Crimson lead turned into a 6-6 tie at the end of the sixth and an 8-8 draw at the end of the seventh, forcing extra innings.

Canyon Kutch hit a clutch two-run homer to put Crimson back on top and Jaxon Richey pitched around a double and a walk given up by Morris in the bottom half to preserve the win. 

In addition to the Kutch homer, Trey Evans hit a pair of long balls and Starley also went yard. Jaiven Ross struck out four in 4.1 innings in the start for the Mustangs.

Kasen Crandell collected three hits for Cedar including a pair of doubles. Kolby White allowed six runs in his start but also struck out 10 over six innings.

The 7-3 Mustangs travel to Snow Canyon on Tuesday. Cedar, at 3-7, hosts Dixie.

Dixie gets above .500 in sweep of Hurricane

April 20: Dixie 13, Hurricane 3

Friday: Dixie 13, Hurricane 2

Two similar efforts got the Flyers back above even in Region 9 play for the first time since April 8.

In both games, Dixie scored in every inning and forced the 10-run rule after five frames.

On April 20, the top four in the Dixie order went 7-for-12 with 10 RBIs and six runs. Shea Anderson and Jacob St. Cyr each drove in three while Jayden Davis drove in four. Malcolm Bartholomew allowed only three hits — all singles — in his five innings. He struck out four. 

Mason Shumaker recorded a pair of hits for Hurricane out of the two-spot. Leadoff hitter Tanner Pastor had the Tigers’ only other hit, leaving the No. 3 through 9 hitters 0-for-13. Manuel Santos had two RBIs out of the five-spot.

At Hurricane, Dixie scored multiple runs in each inning, topping out at four in the second. Anderson collected three hits, as did Dane Thorpe. Brieten Oaks had two hits as did Boston Vest. Each of the four multi-hit efforts included a double.

Anderson and Oaks both drove in three runs.

Grayson Erickson struck out six in four innings, yielding Hurricane’s two runs in the third. Oaks threw a hitless fifth to end the game.

Sam Johanson drove in the two Tigers runs on a double, scoring Pastor and Shumaker.

Dixie, at 6-4, travels to Cedar on Tuesday. The 0-10 Tigers host the fellow 0-10 Canyon View Falcons.

Tuesday’s games 

  • Canyon View at Hurricane
  • Crimson Cliffs at Snow Canyon
  • Cedar at Dixie
  • Desert Hills at Pine View

Region 9 baseball standings, as of Monday

  1. (tie) Desert Hills 8-2 (18-2)
  2. (tie) Snow Canyon 8-2 (18-3)
  3. (tie) Pine View 8-2 (14-3)
  4. Crimson Cliffs 7-3 (14-6)
  5. Dixie 6-4 (10-9)
  6. Cedar 3-7 (6-15)
  7. Canyon View 0-10 (4-16)
  8. Hurricane 0-10 (2-18)

Cedar City News reporter JEFF RICHARDS contributed to this story.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2021, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rich joined St. George News in October 2020. The Colorado native graduated from Metropolitan State University of Denver in December 2018, where he was a sports and managing editor at the student publication, The Metropolitan. He worked as a media relations assistant for the minor league baseball club New Orleans Baby Cakes in 2019.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @RAllenSTGNews@STGnews

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