After winning one of two games on the road last Tuesday, the Carbon High School baseball team returned home and capitalized on an early lead to defeat Juab High School again and win the series on Friday.
“[I’m] really happy, you win the series, especially starting two on the road and that’s your goal is to split on the road so you can get a game back at home,” said head coach Jeff Cisneros of the Dinos’ series win. “As long as you win every series, you know you’ll win the region. I’m really happy with the way we played today, I’m really happy with the way we played Tuesday, just a couple of errors hurt us. I thought we could have won both those games, but Juab’s a scrappy team.”
The Dinos got out to what looked to be a rocky start, allowing one run on a triple and RBI single to start the first inning. However, with a clutch double play, on a flyout to right field, then picking off the runner at first, and a strikeout to end the inning, the Dinos got out of it relatively unscathed. The defense settled in at this point, playing a clean second inning, before the Dinos got themselves on the scoreboard.
The Dinos went scoreless in the first inning, but came out swinging in the second to take a 3-1 lead, with the help of an RBI double by senior Kameron Gunter.
Carbon allowed one run in the third, but came back to extend its lead with three more runs in the bottom of the inning. Senior Chase Morgan reached base on a single, and moved to second on a stolen base. Gunter hit an RBI single to score Morgan, then moved to second on a stolen base. Junior Jadon Robertson hit an RBI double to score Gunter, and scored on an RBI single by senior Wyatt Wilson.
The Dinos continued to light up the scoreboard, scoring one run in the fourth inning and three in the fifth. Sophomore Ty Anderson hit a single, and later scored on an RBI single by senior Jayden Flemmett. Gunter collected his third hit of the game in the fifth inning and scored on an error by the first baseman. Junior Jaxon Leonard reached base on the error, and sophomore Daniel Vega, pinch-running for Leonard, scored on an error by the catcher. Anderson reached on a walk, then scored on an RBI single by senior Gavin Robinett.
The Dinos allowed one run in the fifth, one in the sixth and two in the seventh, but were able to hold on for the 10-6 win.
Robinett pitched a great game for the Dinos, after struggling early in the season. He tossed 4.1 innings and earned the win, allowing one earned run, while walking one and striking out four.
“Gavin has started slow on the mound, he’s given up some runs in his starts before and I just told him ‘Hey let’s just work on cutting down the base runners to start the game,’” said Cisneros. “He’s been coming along. He had a sore arm last year, he didn’t get to throw a lot. I really put a lot of pressure on him this year to take care of himself. [I] need him to be in that starting rotation, need him to get us five innings, six innings if he can and I thought today was a good start for him and it’s a lot easier when you’re scoring runs.”
Leonard finished the game on the mound for the Dinos, throwing 2.2 innings with one walk and five strikeouts.
Gunter went 3-for-3 at the plate, with a double and two RBI.
“Great game today [for Gunter], he’s seeing the ball really well, was using the entire field, that’s the best Kam’s had a day at the plate,” said Cisneros. “We hit a lot of balls hard today, we made a few mistakes here and there, but he really had a good day at the plate.”
Anderson went 2-for-3 with a double, Flemmett went 2-for-4 with an RBI, and Morgan went 2-for-4 with a triple.
“Baseball’s an unforgiving game,” explained Cisneros. “Cody Lowe hits two hard balls first two times at bat and doesn’t have a thing to show for it. Chase finally got into a ball late in the game for a triple and we had some big hits and some guys are coming along but we just need to maintain that. We’ve kind of been up and down all year.”
The Dinos won the first game of the series against Juab 7-1 last Tuesday, then lost the second game 5-2.
Carbon improved to 5-6 overall and 2-1 in Region 12 play after the three-game series against Juab. The Dinos will travel to Richfield High School for a doubleheader on Tuesday, then return home to host the Wildcats on Wednesday. Gametime for the series finale is set for 3 p.m.
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