| Safe at first. This Carbon Dino makes her way to the plate against Spanish Fork last Thursday afternoon. |
The Carbon High Dinos softball team has not been playing for long this year, but they are looking like an experienced team.
With the preseason just getting underway, the Dinos are working toward gaining valuable experience while uniting as a team.
With preseason jitters already worked out, the Dinos have been playing strong and look quite good.
Last Thursday, the Carbon team hosted the Spanish Fork Dons. The Dinos knew this would be a challenge considering that Spanish Fork is a Class 4A powerhouse each year.
The Dinos were up for the challenge however. The team came out strong by scoring two runs in the first inning. Carbon held on to the lead for a short period of time as the Dons answered with two runs of their own in the top of the second.
With the game tied, the momentum slowed down for an inning as neither team scored in the third.
The Dons stepped up to bat in the fourth and had several hits which remained unanswered by the Dinos outfield. Several mistakes were made by the Dinos and the Dons capitalized on these errors to score two runs in the fourth.
The momentum continued to favor the Dons as the visiting team scored three runs in the top of the sixth inning. The Dinos answered these runs with three of their own in the bottom of the sixth. This left the Carbon team down by two entering the seventh and final inning.
Spanish Fork found their opportunity to seal the ball game as they scored three more runs. The Dinos failed to score a comeback, and the team fell to the Dons, 10-5.
“We played some bad defense against Spanish Fork. The errors that we made opened up the gates for the Dons. These errors cost us some runs and eventually the ball game,” explained coach Tony Pinedo.
The Dinos bounced back from the loss to compete in the annual Emery tournament which took place over the course of two days last weekend.
Carbon entered the tournament poised and confident. As the team took to the field, momentum shifted into the corner of the Dinos.
In the first game of the tournament, the Dinos easily defeated San Juan 12-1. The team then moved on to play Wasatch in the second game of the tourney.
Both teams came out strong by scoring two runs a piece in the first inning.
At the top of the second, Wasatch scored three runs and the Dinos answered with one.
The Dinos rallied in the bottom of the third to score three runs and forcing Wasatch to step up in order to hold on to the game.
With two runs scored in the top of the fourth by Wasatch, the Dinos struggled to score one of their own during this inning.
One more run was then scored by Wasatch at the top of the fifth, but a two-run double in the bottom of the fifth by Rachelle Gunderson lead to the Dinos scoring three runs in the inning. This pushed the Carbon team ahead of Wasatch and captured the 9-8 victory for the Dinos.
This was the only game played at the tournament which the Carbon varsity team competed in. All the other games was played by the Dinos junior varsity team who stepped up and played well representing Carbon with pride.
When the Dinos took to the field for the third time in the tourney, the JV team was ready for action and once again played well.
At the end of seven innings, the Dinos defeated West High, 9-8 to advance to the final round of the tournament.
The Dinos would face Region 8 rival and tournament host, the Emery Spartans in the championship game.
Carbon outplayed the Spartans and captured the tournament title by the final score of 8-6. The Dinos remained undefeated in the tournament and look forward to resuming action later this week.
The Carbon sophomore team also competed in the tourney and finished the event 2-2.
Next on the Dinos agenda is a road game in Provo Tuesday and the annual St. George tournament this weekend.