On paper, the Carbon High School baseball team looks a lot like it did last year: finishing the regular season with about a .500 winning percentage, placing in the middle of the pack in Region 12, and winning the first two 3A State games before losing the next two in a row.
But the 2016 Dinos are anything but what they appear on paper. The season was full of walk-off wins, extra innings, and late-inning rallies, with blood, sweat and tears all left on the baseball field.
“Much more successful [than last season],” said head coach Jeff Cisneros. “We learned a lot more, we played a lot better, regardless what overall record says about this group, this was by far a better group of young men and a better team and they played harder all year no doubt about it.”
Carbon traveled to Gates Field at Kearns High School last week to compete in the third round of the 3A State Tournament. The Dinos faced Pine View High School last Thursday in the quarterfinals of the tournament and fell 12-6. The wind was a large factor against the Dinos, with any ball with a bit of power being taken to the fence, and two going over the wall.
“They got balls up and they blew out and we didn’t,” said Cisneros. “Weather, field, there’s no excuses, everybody plays the same so we just have to do a better job.”
The Dinos fell behind 5-0 after the top of the third inning, but scored two of their own in the bottom of the inning, with Anthony Maclean reaching on an error to score Mitch Olson and Jayden Flemett reaching on a fielder’s choice to score Trey Richardson.
The Dinos added another run in the fifth, but a four-spot by Pine View in the sixth and three in the seventh extended the lead. The Dinos started to rally in the bottom of the seventh inning, scoring three runs, but were not able to overcome the deficit. Pine View would go on to win the 3A State Championship.
The Dinos fell into the consolation bracket with the loss and faced Dixie High School the next day. Carbon quickly fell behind 6-0 after the top of the third inning, but a two-run home run by Cole Fossat, his second of the week, put the Dinos behind by just four runs.
Dixie tallied one run in the top of the fourth, but Carbon scored four in the bottom of the inning, to come within one run of tying the game. However, after loading the bases, the Dinos went down in order to end the rally.
“We had the bases loaded there after scoring four runs in the fourth no outs and once again just didn’t get guys across and we did that all year. We did it all last summer, so it wasn’t a surprise to me coming in,” said Cisneros.
Dixie went on to score three more runs and won the game 10-6, knocking the Dinos out of the tournament.
Carbon says goodbye to seven seniors this season, a fairly large amount compared to previous years.
“A lot of guys who have seen a lot of time early in their careers and contributed to everything this year,” said Cisneros. “It’s hard to say goodbye to seven guys, that’s a lot, but that’s what you want in a senior class. You don’t want one or two, you want guys who have stuck around and who are there so we’ll take that every year.”
The Dinos conclude the season 12-13 overall and were 6-6 in Region 12 play, in which they finished in third place.
“There are a lot of other teams that didn’t make it this far and had better seasons,” said Cisneros. “You have some teams who went 15-5 on the year and didn’t even get here. Record doesn’t mean a lot. That’s something we preach early in the year and once again I thought they bought into it and that’s all I can do is be happy that they did that, so I think we learned a lot but we still have a lot to learn.”
[dfads params='groups=4969&limit=1&orderby=random']
[dfads params='groups=1745&limit=1&orderby=random']