After falling to Grantsville in the championship round last season, the consensus among the members of the Carbon Dino baseball squad this season is anything less than a state championship is an underachievement. Opening the season in St. George for four games as part of the Desert Hills Invitational, Carbon jumped two classifications and faced four 5A teams, Salem Hills, Wasatch, Orem and Park City. The Dinos had a tough weekend losing all four contests.
Head coach Jeff Cisneros joined KOAL’s Drive Time Sports to talk about this year’s squad.
“This goes back to right after losing the state championship game last year and obviously throughout the entire summer, fall and winter workouts, was we just need to compete. We need to compete everyday amongst each other, we have a ton of talent coming back this year on paper, but if you don’t take that from paper to the baseball field it doesn’t mean a whole lot. We have a lot of guys who’ve seen a lot of varsity time, we have a group that was very successful this summer, our 17U team won the state American Legion title, our 19U team should have been playing for a state title, they ended up taking third, those kids played well got a lot of experience and for us for the high school season it’s just compete everyday.”
Below is a recap of all the games played in St. George.
Mar. 11- Salem Hills- Loss- 5-0
The Dinos started play bright and early on Friday morning, taking on the Salem Hills Skyhawks. Last season the Skyhawks ended their season in the championship round with back-to-back losses to eventual state champion Spanish Fork and are returning five starters from last years team. This season it looks as though they are ready for another run taking a 5-0 win over the Dinos.
Carbon had a hard time collecting hits in the game gathering just two in seven innings from the bats of Rylan Hart and Keaton Rich.
Jordan Fossat got the start on the mound going three innings giving up two earned on five hits including five strikeouts, Fossat was given the loss. The Dinos also used four other pitchers as Maizen Pritchard, Rylan Hart, Chet Anderson and Keaton Rich all took turns on the hill.
Mar. 11- Wasatch- Loss- 8-3
Wasatch had their season come to an end at the hands of Olympus last season in the third round of the playoffs, ending the season at 15-12. Playing their first season under new coach MacKay Jacobsen the Wasps used a four run third inning to get on top of the Dinos and never looked back.
The Dinos were able to put up one run on the board in the first inning when Hart crossed the plate off a Rich pop out to first. They would also add two more runs in the fourth as Beau Vea was able to score on a James Castro ground ball to third and then later on when Chet Anderson would score on a walk.
Vea started the game on the bump, going two innings allowing four runs (three earned) on six hits in the loss. Dallyn ONeil would enter the game finishing out giving up four earned runs on four hits.
Mar. 12- Loss- Orem- 5-4
The Orem Tigers were the next team the Dinos would face on Saturday afternoon. The Tigers ended their 2021 season losing two in a row to state runner-up Maple Mountain in the championship round, finishing last season with a 21-12 record, they returned six players from last years squad.
This was a game that started slowly, with the Tigers putting the first runs on the board in the fourth and adding another taking a 3-0 lead into the top of the sixth. Tacking on two more runs in the sixth inning. The Dinos found their offense in the bottom of the inning scoring four runs as Anderson, Oneil, Payton Molinar and Hart would all cross the plate.
On the mound, Carbon gave the starting nod to Wyatt Falk, who went four innings giving up two earned on four hits while striking out three. Rich came into to finish out the game going two giving up three runs (one earned), on four hits and struck out one.
Mar. 12- Park City- Loss- 5-4
In the final game of the weekend Carbon faced the Park City Miners. The Miners lost to Bountiful in last years state playoffs in the second round, ending their season at 9-19.
Park City came out scoring at least one run in the first four innings, in fact they put up all of their runs in those innings and went cold the rest of the game.
The Dinos added one run in the second but the sixth inning rally came up just short as Rich scored on an Anderson single and Falk would score on a double play ball off the bat of Ridge Nielsen.
Camden Wilson got the start and took the loss for the Dinos giving up three runs (one earned) on two hits while striking out four. Quade Henrie would enter going three and gave up two runs on three hits and struck out six.
The Dinos will return to the field on Tuesday as they welcome the Union Cougars to Price. Game time is set for 3:30.