After their loss to Grantsville last Saturday, the Carbon Dino baseball team found themselves in the one-loss bracket. Knowing that their next loss would send them home, the Dinos have gone on a four game streak including two wins on Friday against the No.2 Judge Memorial Bulldogs and the No.1 Juab Wasps.
Coming off a 10-0 win over the Emery Spartans, the Dinos moved into the next round to face the Judge Memorial Bulldogs.
Judge Memorial jumped out to an early 2-0 lead and Carbon would come back taking the lead although briefly as Judge would tie it up at three in the bottom of the third inning.
Things would get interesting in the fourth inning when Kade Dimick stepped up with the bases loaded with one out and sitting on two strikes sent a double to left and brought everybody home. Ridge Nielsen came up in the next at bat and brought home Dimick, putting the Carbon lead at 8-3.
Judge loaded up the bases and Carbon brought in Jordan Fossat to get them out of the inning, Fossat walked in one run, and then with two outs the Bulldogs would rally to take a 9-8 lead.
Carbon came back to tie it up and held on in the bottom of the seventh, sending the game into extra innings. In the eighth, Ridge Nielsen would score on an error by the third baseman. A Brayton Nielsen single that brought home Wyatt Falk pushed the score to 11-9. The Carbon defense did the rest and they knocked out Judge Memorial, moving on in the playoffs.
Dimick and Ridge Nielsen both collected two hits and two RBIs and each scored two runs.
Jordan Wright got the start for the Dinos on the mound, going five innings and giving up five earned runs striking out four. Rylan Hart entered in the sixth inning, getting one out and Fossat came in to take the win going 2 and 2/3, giving up two runs on three hits striking out two.
In the next game after beating the No.2 team in the bracket, Carbon faced the No. 1 team in Juab.
The pitchers kept everyone in check in the early going until the sixth inning when Carbon would open up the offense scoring six runs off of two singles and a pair of doubles including one from Keaton Rich that brought home Ridge Nielsen, helping Carbon put six runs on the board.
Juab made a run in the bottom of the sixth pulling within three runs. Rich came up in the seventh flying out to the right fielder, that allowed Fossat to tag up and score.
Fossat was 3-of-4, with two RBIs and a score. Hart and Rich both added two RBIs for the big Carbon win.
After defeating Judge and Juab, and with Union being knocked out earlier in the tournament, the No. 4 Dinos are the highest remaining seed.
Saturday the Dinos will start the day taking on Region 12 foe the Richfield Wildcats. In both outings this season, Carbon came out on top of the Wildcats.
The game with Richfield starts at 10 a.m. If Carbon is victorious they will face the Grantsville Cowboysfor the State Championship. The Dinos lost to the Cowboys in the second round of the playoffs.
Grantsville has made it through the State Championship Tournament without losing a single game, so for Carbon to win it all, they will have to beat them in back-to-back games at 12:30 and 2:30.