| Julian Montoya tries to advance a runner with a bunt. Carbon had a succesful weekend at a Colorado tournament. |
Since the Montrose, Colo. tournament began three years ago, Carbon has dominated.
The Dinos have come away every year as the championship team.
This year was no exception.
The eight team tournament pits Carbon against 4A and 5A size schools from the Denver area.
According to head coach Lane Herrick, the teams are similar in strength to the schools Carbon will be facing this year in the 3A title chase.
In the opening game on March 19, Carbon defeated Green Mountain, Colo. 7-4.
“Besides a couple of errors, it was a really good game for us,” Herrick commented.
Senior Troy Grundy was the winning pitcher.
The next day, Carbon defeated tournament host Montrose 9-6.
Senior Mike Smith lead the Dinos from the mound.
In the championship game, the Dinos were paired with local opponent Emery, the only other Utah team in the tournament.
Backed by excellent hitting, sophomore Adam Martinez had his first start of the season and nabbed an 18-2 win.
Herrick attributed much of the strong hitting over the weekend to Tyler Nelson and Chris Hatch, who were very consistent offensively for the Dinos.
Herrick also said that all three pitchers did very well and the team was really excited about the progress coming out of the weekend.
“We’ve still got room for improvement, but we’re starting to hit the ball really well,” Herrick pointed out. “Some of the kids that were struggling hitting wise started to come around.”
The Dinos begin the region season against Emery. The game has been moved up from its original date of Friday to Thursday.