ST. GEORGE — The baseball team at Desert Hills High School may not have started the season the way it wanted, but the Thunder have every reason to believe that their preseason hopes will be fulfilled.
In its first game of the season at the Desert Hills Summit Invitational Thursday night, the visiting Orem Tigers withstood a furious late-inning rally to edge Desert Hills 5-4.
“It was a lot of fun. Went pretty decently,” Desert Hills coach Kevin Cave told St. George News.
Cameron Humphries belted a solo homerun in the top of the first, then Gray Sundberg connected on a two-run shot that gave the Tigers an early 3-0 lead in the top of the second.
The score stayed that way for most of the contest as Orem starting pitcher Luke Kimmel threw five scoreless innings.
“Their starter did a good job, kept us pretty off balance,” Cave said. “I thought we missed an opportunity in the first inning, left a couple of runners on when we could have gotten chances. We weren’t bad offensively. It was a pretty well-played game all around.”
On a cold night at the ballpark, the Thunder’s bats warmed up with one out in the bottom of the sixth against Orem reliever Cohen Strickland.
Taylor Mosher doubled to start the Desert Hills rally, then took third on a wild pitch.
Mosher came in to score the first run for the home team on another wild pitch as Strickland dealt with early control issues.
Back-to-back walks put two ducks on the pond, and Andrew Wilson knocked in an RBI with his single to cut Orem’s lead to 3-2 going into the final frame.
Orem plated two critical insurance runs in the top of the seventh to go up 5-2, but Desert Hills did not go away quietly in its last at-bat.
Payton Gubler took first on a four-pitch walk, then Cole DeCastro got aboard after a Tigers fielding error. Next, Kyler Terry walked to load the bases full of Thunder runners.
Gubler crossed the plate after another wild pitch, making the score 5-3. Mosher walked and again Desert Hills loaded the bases.
Kyle Fox put the ball in play in the next at-bat for the Thunder and reached on an error. One Thunder runner scored on the play but the potential tying run was thrown out at the plate.
That was as close as the Thunder would get as Strickland struck out the next batter and then induced a groundout to finish off the save for the Tigers (1-0).
Desert Hills got a good game from three different pitchers. Left-hander Kason Turner started, then Landon Musgrave and Jakobe Hofer pitched in relief.
“I thought our pitchers did really well, considering not one of them has thrown a varsity inning before,” Cave said. “So for all three of them to hold that Orem team to five runs, and the way they did it, is pretty impressive.”
In a preseason coaches poll conducted by the Deseret News, Desert Hills (0-1) was ranked No. 2 in 4A behind Region 10 rival and defending state champion Snow Canyon.
“We think this will be a year that we build throughout the season,” Cave said. “We’ll probably be playing our best baseball in April and May.”
Crimson Cliffs 8, American Leadership Academy (Arizona) 4
Crimson Cliffs (1-0) scored three runs in both the first and second innings enroute to the win. Beau Sampson was the winning pitcher for the Mustangs.
Tate Maynard, Trey Evans, Jayz Estridge and Parker Andrus all drove in a run for the winners and Brexten Starley hit a double that plated two Mustangs in the victory.
Hurricane 10, Mountain View 8
Hurricane (1-0) had five hits in the contest and took advantage of eight Bruins errors to win its season opener at home.
Josh Wright picked up the victory on the pitcher’s mound and he also drove in a run for the Tigers.
Mason Shumaker and Sam Johanson each had an RBI for the Tigers and Grant Scholzen drove in three runs for the victors.
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