| A Carbon Dino waits for the signal before the pitch is thrown. |
It was a game that pretty much summed up much of the entire season for the Dino baseball team. They got themselves in a hole and made a great run at a come back, but fell short. Union sent the Dinos packing 15-10.
Union jumped out quick and was up 8-0 before Carbon had a chance to get their feet on the ground. But, Union was saving their ace pitcher for the next game and their starter ran into trouble. The Dinos capitalized on the wild pitching and parlayed several walks into a seven run inning. The Cougars finally had to bring in their ace to shut the Dinos down.
Nathan Martinez and Brandon Branch each had a hit with runners in scoring position and helped the cause. Hayden Basinger also had a clutch hit as the Dinos clawed their way back in the game.
But Carbon had pitching problems of their own and went through three themselves before Ron Herrera came in and settled down.
But in the end it was the fielding errors that cost the game. Twice, the Dinos had two outs and a bobbled ball kept an inning alive for Union to put a three run blast over the fence. Two errors that cost six runs overall. The margin of victory for the Cougars was five.
And so the season is over and already Coach Moynier is thinking about the season to come. “I thought a lot about coming back and right now I have a gut feeling I will be.” he said about his plans. “I will try and muster up the strength for another season. This was a long tough one.”
The Dinos lose eight seniors to graduation this year, but only four of those were starters. Many of the underclassmen who played this season were either starters or got a chance at some varsity play.
Returning starters should include Nathan Martinez, Josh Denison, Lance Deeter, Beau Rich and Hayden Basinger. Dayton Martindale, Daniel Peczuh, Kaz Cook. Keny Seal and Austin Davis also racked up some varsity experience.
Moynier noted that the Freshman/sophomore squad won most of their games and so some of them might also get a chance to shine next year, if they work hard this summer.
Mainly, Moynier hopes that despite the fact that his team will bring more experience to the field next season, if the boys do not do something to take their game to the next level, then they will not be able to expect to go any further in the post season than they did this year.
With two chances to play on an American Legion team and get the work in they will need to get back to the winning ways of Carbon High Baseball, he hopes to see all of them playing ball this summer.
Moynier summed it up with this thought, “Our future for next season looks good, but if we are satisfied with where we are then we won’t be more than a fourth place team. I hope the boys will take that to heart and get out and work hard this summer.”