The Carbon Dinos remain in contention for a state championship after splitting two games in the opening rounds of the 3A tournament Saturday in Park City.

Falling to the Desert Hills Thunder 7-1 in the first of two games, the Dinos avoided elimination with a dominating 13-2 win over the Morgan Trojans. The win moves Carbon to the third round on Thursday in Spanish Fork.

Held to just three hits for the contest, Carbon struggled to keep with the talented Desert Hills squad. The Thunder scored all seven runs in the first three innings to pull away from the Dinos early in the first contest.

Zac Bradley was charged with the loss on the hill as he allowed four earned runs in three innings of work. Adrien Sanchez pitched the final three frames in relief, giving up just a single hit, while logging six strikeouts.

Sanchez also provided the Dinos with some offense as he brought in Cody Lowe for the team’s lone run on a sacrifice. Gavin Robinett finished 2-4 at the plate, notching a single and a double in the setback.

Carbon responded to the loss with Desert Hills in a big way by avoiding elimination in a five-inning route of Morgan. Scoring in the first three innings, the Dinos secured the win with an eight run inning in the fourth.

Chase Morgan notched the win from the hill in a complete-game, two-hit effort. Morgan made short work of the Trojans, facing just 19 batters. Defensively Carbon played error free baseball in the season saving victory.

Lowe once again led the push at the plate for Carbon with a home run to help bring in three RBIs. Nate Olsen finished a perfect 3-3 at the plate with two doubles, a single and one RBI. As a team Carbon accumulated 12 hits.

Now having to work through the one-loss bracket the Dinos will once again look to avoid elimination against Stansbury on Thursday. The No. 2 seed from Region 10, Stansbury was knocked down to the one-loss bracket following a loss to 2-0 loss to Dixie in the second round.

Thursday’s game is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m.. The winner will move on to face either Union or Juan Diego at 7:00 p.m..