Monday’s 4A baseball bracket was played at BYU’s Larry Miller Field in Provo. Snow Canyon, Mountain Crest, Green Canyon, and Dixie all won.
Mountain Crest 5, Desert Hills 1
The Mountain Crest Mustangs will advance in the 4A playoff bracket after defeating Desert Hills 5-1. The game was tight for the majority of the innings.
Desert Hills was the first to gain the lead after scoring one run in the third inning. However, that was the only time the Thunder would have the lead.
Mountain Crest answered with two runs of its own in the bottom of the third. The Mustangs refused to give up a run to Desert Hills for the remainder of the game.
The Mustangs struck again with three runs in the sixth inning for a 5-1 lead, putting the game out of the Thunder’s hands.
Kaden Deeter led the way with 3 RBIs for Mountain Crest while Mustangs pitcher Andrew Nielsen threw 10 strikeouts in the win.
After last years early playoff exit, the Mustangs are hungry to continue 4A bracket play.
Snow Canyon 3, Bear River 2
Late game heroics saved No. 1 seed Snow Canyon an early 4A postseason loss against No. 8 seed Bear River.
The Warriors had a hard time getting its offense going in the win, Bear River pitcher Degan Rigby was making life difficult for the Snow Canyon hitters.
Things started to slip for Snow Canyon when the Bears broke the tie with two runs in the third inning.
Talon Marble had a double and an RBI in the third inning to help the Bears gain the 2-0 lead.
“My job is to make sure they stay focused on what they can do because they can swing it,” said Snow Canyon coach Reed Secrist.
“Obviously (Degan) Rigby was sensational tonight, but at the same time I know we can swing it and score runs. We just got to keep them going because we trailed the whole game and I know we could do it. It was just a matter of me trying to stay positive and keep them going because this is the state tournament.”
Following the third inning Secrist felt a pitching change could help the Warriors and Jackson Kirby was put on the mound.
Kirby’s presence was immediately felt, and he pitched all the remaining innings for the Warriors.
Snow Canyon did not concede another run to Bear River thanks to great fielding and pitching from Kirby.
“With Kirby we know what he can do,” said Secrist.
“So, it was a matter of (Coden) Herman getting us where we needed to be and then coming up with something a little different to keep bear river at two because we didn’t want to give them any more runs. Obviously it’s hard to comeback when you’re down more than two. It was sensational of Kirby to come in and do what he did Its going to take that type of player and pitcher to win this thing, no doubt.”
Snow Canyon finally was able to get a run on the board when Ryder Harrison hit a double in the fifth inning, getting his teammate to home plate.
The Warriors trailed 2-1 until the bottom of the seventh inning, where they knew they had a chance to win it.
Snow Canyon’s Crew Secrist hit a double, putting himself on second and the only runner on base for the Warriors.
Harrison was up to bat next, he hit a walk-off home run to win it for the Warriors, 3-2.
“I wasn’t trying to do too much, just trying to get the next guy up,” said Harrison.
“I knew that (Rigby) was throwing a lot of fastballs, so I was just sitting on that, trying to get on it. I was just looking for a fastball and I got the pitch that I wanted. We didn’t give up and didn’t lose our confidence there at the end. I felt like we were just as confident going into that final inning as any other inning. (Rigby) is a good pitcher so hats off to him. We just got to keep doing what we’re doing.”
Green Canyon 5, Crimson Cliffs 1
Defending 4A champion Crimson Cliffs falls early to Green Canyon in day one of 4A bracket play.
Green Canyon set the tone early with quick decision making in its fielding.
The Wolves got a big lift from Coleman Bobb who had a double in the second inning and was hit home by Carson Proctor for a 1-0 lead.
While Green Canyon didn’t score for the next three innings, it kept up its surgical defense to keep the Mustangs from scoring a run of their own.
Green Canyon head coach Kyle Bubak said his team was prepared for this type of game.
“We prepared, we’ve been on turf a lot throughout the year, and obviously we were excited to play here,” said Bubak.
“We were prepared for the team, we had a good idea of what kind of game it was going to be as long as we pitched ahead, and Cade (Atkinson) did a great job of pitching ahead. We’re thankful for him and what he did on the mound.”
The Wolves started to pull away in the sixth inning, scoring three runs. The push was started by Cade Atkinson who hit Caden Stuart home.
Following Atkinson’s RBI it was Bobb who once again came up big for the Wolves. Bobb hit a home run sending Atkinson home for two runs and a 4-0 lead.
“He is a great athlete. He hits the ball well and fields the ball well,” said Bubak. “He is a great talent and we’re thankful to have him. We were thankful to have him in the moments that mattered today with some clutch hitting.”
Bobb wasn’t only impactful with his hitting, but also his fielding. Bobb was on third for Green Canyon and dove for balls and ran for catches resulting in multiple outs.
“First of all it’s the energy that my team gives me,” said Bobb.
“In my head there’s nothing that can or will beat me when I have my team behind me and I’m using my full potential. I’m going to control everything I can and work as hard as possible to succeed. The way that we are together as a team is very strong. We don’t have individual cliques, we’re very supportive of each other.”
Crimson Cliffs had potential for a rally in the bottom of the sixth. The Mustangs scored a run of its own, shortening the lead to 4-1.
With two runners on base and two outs Crimson Cliffs was unable to convert anymore runs and Green Canyon fended off any potential run in the seventh.
A big win for the Green Canyon program, but Bubak says they need to take it a day at a time.
“It doesn’t matter, we won one game and that’s the reality of it. It was a big win for us and for our program, but we will wake up tomorrow with it behind us. So, we got to show up tomorrow, we have good teams everyday so its great for now, but tomorrow we wake up 0-0.”
Dixie 10, Ridgeline 1
No. 3 seed Dixie got the best of No. 6 seed Ridgeline on Monday in 4A bracket play.
The two teams played tight throughout the opening innings. They played with good fielding across the board and neither team got a significant advantage.
Finally, Dixie started to break away in the fourth inning with a 4-0 lead.
The run was fueled by three back-to-back double RBIs by Dixie’s Logan Leavitt, Trace Franco, and Cooper Bartholomew. The three Flyers were followed up by Braxton Yates who recorded an RBI of his own on a single.
Ridgeline was finally able to get on the board in the sixth inning with an RBI off a double from Trey Purser.
Dixie answered with a dominant 6-run sixth inning to take a 10-1 lead, putting the game well out of the Riverhawks hands.