Dinos Softball concludes season at State

By Sierra Trujillo

The Carbon High School softball team concluded its season at the 3A State Tournament last week, falling to Cedar City High School 2-1, the Dinos’ third game of the tournament.
The Dinos traveled to the Valley Regional Softball Complex on Thursday to play in the elimination game against Cedar City. The game proved to be a pitcher’s duel, with only a total of three runs crossing the plate in the game.
The Dinos fell behind 2-0 after three innings, with Cedar City, the designated home team, scoring a run in the first and another in the third. Carbon scored its only run in the top of the sixth inning on an RBI ground out by McKenna Sorenson.
The Dinos’ loss was not for lack of opportunity on the base paths. The Dinos tallied seven hits in the game, only one less than Cedar City, and totaled four stolen bases, moving the runners into scoring position. However, with three runs caught stealing as well, much of the Dinos’ momentum was cut short.
“I think they played well enough to win, Kinley pitched a heck of a game,” said head coach Wade Williams. “A call went against us. I was a little aggressive on the bases and that hurt us.”
Kinley Nelson pitched all six innings for the Dinos, allowing only one earned run on nine strikeouts and just two walks. Nelson also went 2-3 in the game at the plate. Kelsey Sorenson went 2-3 as well, with three stolen bases.
“I couldn’t be happier. She (Kinley) gave us everything she had,” said Williams.
After losing the first game of the tournament, the Dinos won their second game, both hosted at Snow Canyon High School, sending Carbon to the tournament at the Valley Regional Softball Complex in Taylorsville.
While the Dinos wanted to make it further in the tournament, Williams said that it is impressive that the girls made in this far in the tournament two years in a row.
“It was definitely a learning season,” said Williams. “The girls are awesome. To make it this far in State two years in a row, which is the first time they’ve done that two years in a row in a while, says a lot. Obviously it’s not where we wanted to end up, we wanted to go further.”
The Dinos conclude the season 17-10-1 overall, and finished in second place in the Region 12 standings. The Dinos will lose some seniors this year, but the team has many younger players moving up in the ranks as well, which Williams is excited about.
“I think that’s one of my favorite things of coaching is seeing the older girls, because they know it’s their last year, take that step up and play a whole season with everything they have,” said Williams. “I think we’ll just get better. There’s so many young girls that are playing and they’re very good, they’re very well coached.”