Prep softball: Cedar, D-Hills cruise; Warriors also win

Cedar celebrates Sage Oldroyd's (15) grand slam, Dixie vs. Cedar, Softball St. George, Utah, Apr. 4, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

ST. GEORGE – Both Desert Hills and Cedar recorded shutout victories Tuesday night, while Snow Canyon and Pine View played the most hotly-contested game of the day in Region 9 softball action. Below are game summaries of Tuesday’s region contests:

Cedar City 15, Dixie 0 (three innings)

It’s early, but the Lady Reds moved to the top of Region 9 with a convincing win over the Flyers.

“We are playing well right now,” said Cedar head coach Chris Weaver. “Dixie is very young, but Coach Demas does a great job. They will sneak up and make some noise in region this year. They always do.”

Cedar’s Bailey Hess (3), Dixie vs. Cedar, Softball St. George, Utah, Apr. 4, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

For Cedar, Denim Henkel had a three-run home run and Sage Oldroyd had a grand slam. Bryton Holyoak got the win from the circle in the one-hitter, striking out six and only walking one.

“Cedar is on a roll right now,” said Dixie head coach Dave Demas. “We struggled at the plate tonight. We have some good senior leadership though. Kenzie Worthington and Brittany Grob are playing well. I am confident that the girls will figure it out.”

The Lady Reds move to 8-7-1 overall and 2-0 in region play. Cedar will host Hurricane on Friday. The Lady Flyers move to 3-15 overall and 0-1 in region play. Dixie will travel to Las Vegas Wednesday to face Bishop Gorman before resuming region by hosting Snow Canyon on Friday.

Desert Hills 8, Hurricane 0

The Lady Thunder traveled to Hurricane and blanked the Tigers. Brianna St Clair threw a two-hitter in the shutout.

Despite the dominant outcome, Desert Hills scored no more than two runs in any inning. As a team, the Thunder collectively had 14 hits. Corinn Grantham and Megan Wiscombe led the team with three hits apiece. Ashlee File, Sophie Wilcox, Rilee Stookey and St. Clair had two hits apiece.

“We struggled a few innings with our hitting,” said Desert Hills head coach Kacee McArthur. “We never really had that breakout inning. We are working on our consistency there and trying not to leave runners on base in critical situations. Give credit to Hurricane. They made some good defensive plays tonight to get out of some jams. Overall, it was a good team win though.”

After a scoreless first inning, the Thunder put up two runs in each of the next two innings. They then managed to get four more across over the final four innings.

“We battled defensively,” said Hurricane head coach Ryan Smith. “They got some key hits at critical moments. At the plate, we chased some bad pitches and could not string hits together.”

The Lady Thunder move to 16-1-1 overall and 1-0 with the win. Desert Hills will travel to Pine View on Friday. The Lady Tigers drop to 2-4-2 overall and 0-1 in region play. Hurricane will be on the road at Cedar.

Snow Canyon 8, Pine View 5

The Lady Warriors put up two runs each in the first two innings. Then they matched Pine View’s output in the latter innings enough to pull out the win.

“Defensively, we played pretty well,” said Pine View assistant coach Russ Nielsen. “But we could not get the bats going till the fourth inning. It took our girls a few innings to adjust to their pitching.”

Camryn Johnson’s two-run shot in the second inning gave Snow Canyon the early 4-0 lead. In the top of the fourth inning, the Panthers Hanna James knocked in Marquee Jennings and Leachel Barlow to halve the Warrior lead 4-2.

But Snow Canyon answered in the bottom when Natalie Gunn knocked in Alex Deming and Preslee Gates with a double.

In the top of the fifth, the Panthers cut the lead again as Britt Nielsen’s single scored Abby Neilson and Kyierra Grinnell. But Snow Canyon matched again. In the bottom of the fifth, the Warriors had three consecutive hits to right field. The last, by Deming, garnered runs from the previous two hit by Abi Farrer and Teagan Trent.

Pine View’s James scored in the sixth inning. This time, the Warriors did not respond. But Payten Jensen struck out two and got the final batter to pop out in the final inning to secure the win.

“Payten has improved as the season has progressed,” said Snow Canyon head coach Tracee Heaton. “Her speed does not drop off as the game progresses. She has worked hard to get herself in varsity-game sharpness.”

The Lady Warriors even their record at 8-8 overall and 1-1 in region play. Snow Canyon will travel to Dixie on Friday. The Lady Tigers fall to 6-8 and 0-1 in region. Pine View will host the Lady Thunder on Friday.

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Twitter: @oldschoolag

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2017, all rights reserved.

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