4A State baseball: Dixie, Crimson Cliffs, and Pine View all earn wins, Snow Canyon falls
The 4A state playoff tournament continues on the campus of Dixie State University.
Six of the eight teams remaining hail from Region 10, including the top four seeds.
On Monday, the defending state champion Snow Canyon Warriors were knocked off by Bear River behind ten runs in the first three innings from the Bears.
The top-seeded Dixie Flyers flexed their muscles on Hurricane, shutting out the Tigers 13-0 behind another strong outing from Malcolm Bartholomew.
Crimson Cliffs got a stellar pitching performance by sophomore Steele Barben, while Pine View knocked off Desert Hills behind a solid two-way performance by Brock Roundy.
#4 Snow Canyon vs. #5 Bear River
In the opening game of play on Monday, the Bear River Bears scored 10 runs in the first three innings, including six in the third, to knock off defending champion Snow Canyon 12-3.
Leading 4-2 entering the third, Hunter Smoot started the rally with a two-run single.
Smoot struck starter Kyson Goates for a three-run homer in the second inning to put the Bears up early.
Hunter Harrow broke the game open with a bases clearing double, increasing the lead to 10-2.
“They put the ball in play. We walked a lot of guys, put a lot of guys on base,“ said Warriors head coach Reed Secrist. “That’s tough to do, but hopefully we’ll figure that out by tomorrow.”
On the mound, Harrow went 5.2 innings, allowing just three runs on four hits and striking out five.
“(He) just mixed up his pitches to get ahead,” Secrist said. “Fastball to get ahead and then he’d work the off-speed. Sometimes he would come back with the off-speed, so he just kept us off-balance all night.”
The Warriors scored two runs in the first inning, but were shut down as Harrow settled in.
Freshman Andrew Lyon pitched 3.2 scoreless innings out of the bullpen, likely saving a few arms going forward for Snow Canyon.
“I would have liked to have left him out there to get through all that but I know in a game like this, we’re going to need him later on down the line. He did his job. He put up zeroes while he was out there as a freshman, awesome to see that.”
#1 Dixie vs. #10 Hurricane
Malcolm Bartholomew pitched six scoreless innings, and Boston Vest went 2/5 with five RBIs as the top-seeded Flyers showed why they're the top team in 4A with a 13-0 win in six innings.
Bartholomew allowed just four hits in his six innings and struck out six, while Mason Shumaker didn't make it out of the first inning for the Tigers.
Dixie got on the board with four runs in the first inning.
Logan Leavitt reached on a fielder's choice to score Vest. Grayson Erickson and Leavitt scored on wild pitches. Blake Watson was hit by a pitch, allowing Jayden Davis to score.
"We wanted to win that top of the first inning and go after it and get it," said Dixie head coach Danny Ipson. "The first win is always the hardest to get so we wanted to make sure that we executed well and I thought we played great defense as well."
Bartholomew pitched a perfect top of the second inning, and the Dixie bats went to work in the bottom half.
Shea Anderson led off with an infield single and reached third on the play on an error. A sacrifice fly from Vest scored Anderson to push the lead to 5-0.
Davis would later score on a Leavitt double.
Leading 7-0 entering the sixth inning, RBIs from Blake Watson and Derek Kesterson made it 9-0 before the big bat of Vest once again made its presense felt, sending the Flyers home happy with a walk-off grand slam.
Derek Kesterson had three hits and an RBI.
Leavitt and Watson each had two RBIs.
Bartholomew's gem was hit fourth complete game of the season, and third shutout.
The left-hander now has an ERA of 2.05 on the year, and has 68 strikeouts in just 58 IP.
"Just to come out and throw strikes, win the two-strike battles and he did that and was effective all day," said Ipson on what he saw from Bartholomew.
Dixie plays Bear River on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.
"Bear River is giong to be a great team," Ipson said. "They're always competitive and are going to compete until the bitter end to get those guys."
#2 Crimson Cliffs vs. #9 Green Canyon
Steele Barben was lights out in relief of Aaron Morris, pitching 4.2 innings and giving up just one run while striking out five as the Crimson Cliffs Mustangs beat the Green Canyon Wolves 15-3 in six innings.
Barben entered after Morris was only able to go 1.1 innings, allowing two runs and walking two and also hitting two in the second inning.
Entering with the bases loaded and one out, Barben hit the first man he faced before retiring the next two.
Barben pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the third before the Wolves offense tagged the sophomore with a run on a double by Cade Atkinson to score Carson Proctor in the fourth.
The double was the only hit allowed by Mustang pitching.
Barben worked a perfect fifth and sixth inning to close out his breakout performance.
"Steele's been starting all year long on JV so he's got the innings and his arm's conditioned," said Crimson Cliffs head coach Justin Abbott. "We just needed someone to come in a compete. Aaron was kind of banged up on his finger a little bit and had a hard time working down in the zone. Steele came in and did a great job of competing. I couldn't be more proud in a sophomore stepping up to get us a big W and get us into tomorrow."
The Mustang offense pounded out 13 hits.
Trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the third, Crimson Cliffs scored six runs on the strength of singles by Jayz Estridge and Canyon Kutch.
Brex Starley doubled home Trey Evans in the fourth. Starley came around to score on an error to put the Mustangs up 8-3.
Doubles by Estridge, Kutch, and Tate Maynard kicked off the sixth inning. Trey Evans' grand slam was the final touch on the win.
"I think we got the jitters out of the way," said Abbott. "The first year we played as a school we had COVID. Then last year we didn't get out of a tough three-game series against Bear River. Those first couple of innings it was kind of like 'what's this all about'. Being on this stage with teams like Dixie and Desert Hills who have been here before, and we haven't."
Abbott's club won 14 straight to start the year before dropping three in a row.
"We weren't going to run the table. We knew it. I knew it. I thought it was a really good chance for us to bounce back and some adversity. We lost to some good teams, and we played them good, too. It's not like we got boat-raced, it's not like we didn't compete. We competed. It's good to lose sometimes... We just have to play the best baseball we can right now."
With their win over Green Canyon, the Mustangs have won five of their last six.
#3 Pine View vs. #6 Desert Hills
Brock Roundy pitched into the sixth inning and drove in three runs, leading Pine View to a 7-3 win over Desert Hills.
The Panthers leader in RBIs drove in runs with singles in the first, third, and sixth innings, and didn't allow a run until the fifth on a sacrifice fly from Cole DeCastro.
After walking Danny Onion with two outs in the sixth, Pine View head coach Glen McLellan turned to Brandon Roundy, who got a ground ball to go off Onion's leg for the final out in the inning.
"Brock really wasn't on his A-game, but he held them to just a couple of runs and Brandon came in and closed the door... We just don't want to have to go to Brandon so late in the game, but this was a must-win and we're going to try and win every game," said McLellan.
Leading 5-3 entering the seventh inning, Pine View scratched two more runs across on a sacrifice fly by Andrew Shakespeare and a Roundy single.
Desert Hills managed to get the tying run to the plate in Taylor Mosher, but Roundy got the senior to swing through a fastball to close the door.
Payton Gubler went four innings for Desert Hills, allowing six hits, while striking out six, and walking two.
Monday night was the second time the Panthers got the best of Gubler, earning a 10-5 win against Desert Hills on April 19.
"We've already faced Payton, we've seen him so we just said 'take the same approach'," said McLellan. "We had the same kind of succcess last time. Payton is a great pitcher, I respect him, but we try and tell our boys to not give too much respect."
That win came on the heels of a 13-6 victory over the Thunder on April 20.
More: Roundy's strong outing, Becker's three-run run shot lead Pine View over Desert Hills
After not playing since April 29, McLellan admitted he saw some rust from his club in the early going.
Pine View hosted an alumni game and intersquad games to keep his club playing in game settings.
"Even though you try and make it as real as possible, you know in the back of their head, its not real, and they're teammates," said McLellan. "Brock was rusty— we were all a little rusty—even when swinging the bat. Good approaches, but just chasing pitches we usually don't normally chase. We'll get those little jitters out."
Pine View faces off against in-region foe Crimson Cliffs in a battle of the #2 and #3 seeds.
The two squads earned a split in the regular season, with Crimson Cliffs beating Pine View 7-3, and the Panthers winning 4-3.
The 4-3 loss was the first loss of the season for Crimson Cliffs.
"Good team. Good, competitive team... They have a good ptiching staff but we've taken one from them at the beginning of the year and we believe we can do it again," McLellan said.
Pine View enters Tuesday's game on an eight-game winning streak.
Sean Ellertson is a sports reporter for the St. George Spectrum & Daily News. To continue to support his work, please subscribe to The Spectrum. Follow Sean on Twitter @SeanEllertson.
This article originally appeared on St. George Spectrum & Daily News: 4A State baseball tournament: Bear River dominates defending champs
