High school baseball: Top seeds Snow Canyon and Dixie remain in 4A winners bracket
Region 9 rivals and 4A No. 1-seed Dixie and No. 2-seed Snow Canyon each earned wins Tuesday to enter Wednesday of the state playoffs without a loss.
The two games went very differently, as Snow Canyon won a pitchers duel while Dixie exploded for nine runs in the first inning en route to an 11-run victory.
Snow Canyon 3, Timpanogos 0
No. 2-seed Snow Canyon shut out No. 3-seed Timpanogos to remain in the winners side of the 4A playoff bracket. The Warriors relied on a great pitching performance by Andrew Lyon and some timely hitting for the win.
Lyon pitched nearly a complete game, going six and a third innings. He didn’t allow any runs by the Timberwolves and struck out eight batters.
Snow Canyon head coach Reed Secrist said, “He’s going to be our No. 1 next year, no doubt about it. He’s easily a No. 1 right now, so it’s nice to have one and two, (Kyson Goates) yesterday and then that performance right there to get us into Wednesday without a loss. I think that is always huge.”
When asked what it meant to him that his coaches trusted him in big games like Tuesday, Lyon said, “It means a lot. It gives me a lot of confidence so I can go out there and shove. I feel like I did pretty good, and my coaches had my back”
Snow Canyon cruised to victory after scoring two runs in the bottom of the first inning thanks to a two RBI single by senior catcher Hayden Smith, who is committed to play baseball at Glendale Community College in Arizona.
“That was huge, get those two runs,” Secrist said. “Hayden with a two-out big hit there for us. I think it gives us some momentum. We’ve been playing good defense, we’ve been pitching well, so maybe two is all you need.”
Snow Canyon added another run in the bottom of the third inning after Ryder Harrison reached on a single and scored on a wild pitch.
A Timpanogos offense that entered Tuesday averaging about seven and a half runs per game could never really get going against Lyon.
The Timberwolves had opportunities in several innings but were unable to capitalize with runners in scoring position in both the second and third innings as Lyon pitched out of both jams to hold Timpanogos scoreless.
Talan Kelly entered to get the last two outs on the mound.
Dixie 17, Desert Hills 6
Top-seeded Dixie flexed its muscle with a dominant 17-6 win over Region 9 foe and No. 4-seed Desert Hills.
The two teams faced off twice during the regular season, splitting their season series. This game was very different from both of those games as Dixie exploded offensively.
Nine of Dixie’s runs came in the first inning. Four of those runs came thanks to two RBI doubles by Logan Leavitt and Max Orton. Ridge Erickson hit an RBI single, Braxton Yates hit two RBI singles of his ow, and Boston Vest hit a two RBI triple to cap off the scoring for the Flyers.
Dixie head coach Danny Ipson said, “We’ve been talking a little bit about our approach and just trying to keep it simple. I felt like we did that, attacked in the zone and were successful in doing that.”
Every position player for Dixie scored at least one run, while eight of the nine batters had at least one RBI. Erickson, a BYU commit, was the star of the night, reaching base each time he came to the plate.
Coach Ipson said, “We’ve been talking a lot this year about lengthening our lineup, making it deep. Everybody’s got an opportunity to contribute. Tonight was one of those nights where everyone is able to come out and have some success.”
Desert Hills made things interesting in the top of the third inning when it scored five runs, but Dixie answered back with four runs of its own in the bottom of the inning.
Dixie added two more runs in the fourth to truly put the game out of reach.
Jake Andreas earned the win on the mound, as he pitched four innings and struck out four. Boston Vest entered in the fifth inning to finish things off for the Flyers.
