High school baseball: Cyprus wins convincingly over Region 4 preseason favorite Murray

It’s been a strong start to the season for Cyprus and first year head coach Alex Aldana. Prior to Wednesday’s game with Murray, the Pirates won their first two region games and held an 8-2 region record.

When the undefeated Spartans came to Magna to play, Cyprus held them off and earned a dominant 10-0 victory to stay perfect in Region 4 play. Aldana stressed that this year’s early success is a product of work in years past.

“I mean, people will see the score for today, but not a lot of people see what they’ve been working so hard for the last year. They worked so hard last year. To come up here and then be fighting, I’m so proud of those boys they’ve been fighters.”

The game started slow with neither team earning a run in the first inning, but everything changed when the Pirates took the bat in the bottom of the second. Batter after batter got on base, and quickly it snowballed into a six-run inning for Cyprus.

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Pirates’ Rene Hidalgo hit a crucial double with the bases loaded which got two runners home and senior Easton Anderson also hit a triple to get in another run. The avalanche of runs didn’t stop there as Cyprus scored three more runs in the third inning as the Pirates took advantage of a Spartan error with the bases loaded.

While batting was consistent, the Pirates’ defense was just as much so. Cyprus’ fielding often kept Murray off base and never gave the Spartans a solid chance at getting a run in, which allowed it to run away with the game.

In the bottom of the fourth, Anderson, who also plays catcher for the Pirates, stepped up again and hit his first home run of the year to earn the 10-0 lead.

“I think that’s just our dugout,” said Anderson of the scoring runs. “Staying up and supporting us guys on the field and just having a strong supporting cast behind us that helps keep us motivated to keep playing our game. I think that we’re solid, and we got the right guys to do what we need to do this year. We have a couple new guys, but they’re being really impactful this year so far.”

In the top of the fifth the Pirates’ defense was relentless and kept the Spartans from scoring, and Cyprus secured the win via mercy rule.

“We pride ourselves on our defense,” Anderson said. “It’s pretty much all we work on in practice and we do some batting practice, but we work a lot on our defense and just small mechanical things that make the easy plays look easy.”

It’s Cyprus’ first year with Aldana at the helm as head coach, and the Pirates were voted to finish third in Region 4, while Murray was voted to finish first. It’s still early in the season with plenty of baseball yet to be played, but it’s certainly an encouraging start for Cyprus who now sit at the top of Region 4 with a 4-0 record. West Jordan is right behind with a 3-0 record.

“We feel good but we have to go day by day, game by game,” Aldana said. “We have high expectations of course. We expect to win every single game, but we have to keep it day by day.”