| It was crunch time when Jan Jorgensen headed into home plate at the top of the seventh inning after Jamal Lewis smacked out a single. The ball which was picked up by Park City’s shortstop heads to the plate (very upper right hand corner) at the same time Jorgensen does. Will Jorgensen make it to home first or will the ball beat him there giving the Miner’s catcher a chance to tag him before he can score… |
A good old fashioned pitchers duel took place on the Carbon High baseball field Friday afternoon, and when the dust cleared, Park City had defeated the Dinos baseball team 1-0.
Troy Grundy, a sophomore, went the distance for Carbon and Park City’s well known senior, who quarterbacked the Miner football team to many victories last fall, also spent the entire seven innings on the mound. Both also key hits for their teams, but Roger’s hit drove in the Miners only run of the game which was enough to beat the Dinos in the end.
Grundy’s first hit, a double, was a wonderful drive to left field, but no one else could connect within the inning so he was left high and dry on second base.
For the most part, it was not a good day for pitchers to be throwing the ball. A cold wind blowing from the north-northwest had to keep arms tight and the fear that that cold would cause problems for those arms had to be in both pitchers minds during the game. Nonetheless, neither relented, and until the end it was anyones game.
The first inning was when Park City scored. After Carbon went down without a hit at the top of the inning, Park City put a man on base with a single, and then Rogers drove him in.
Carbon wasn’t rattled, however, and as the innings went on they managed to hit more and more on the Miners senior pitcher, while Park City hardly managed a hitting whimper after that score. Grundy either held them at bay or the Carbon fielding nailed them down.
But the scoring drought was what hurt the Dinos. Everytime they got close to getting past third they got stranded by Roger’s hot curve ball.
Then came the top of the seventh. Jan Jorgensen hit an infield single and made it to first base. Then Jeff Anderson bunted driving Jorgensen toward second. Park City committed an error on the play and that allowed Jorgensen to get to third base while Anderson took his place at first.
It was then that Jamal Lewis came up and batted a grounder in the direction of the short stop. That hit drove Jorgensen toward the plate and it looked like the Dinos were going to tie the score, but Park City’s short stop grabbed the grounder and threw the ball to home. It reached the Miner’s catcher and home plate before Jorgensen did and he was out.
The Dinos had two more outs with which to tie or go ahead forcing the Miners to play the bottom of the final inning. With two players on base, Anderson had reached third and Lewis on first, Josh Greenwood was instructed by coach Lane Herrick to try a suicide squeeze play. But the bunt was nabbed and Greenwood was out. Anderson managed to make it back to third without damage so the Dinos still had a chance.
Next up was Grundy, who had pitched 13 strikeouts with only two hits in the game. It was his turn however, to be struck out instead.
Carbon walked away with another loss, but one against another very good team. Tuesday they lost to a 4A Spanish Fork team that has yet to lose a game and now to undefeated Park City.
Rogers ended up striking out 14 Carbon batters, but had allowed one more hit than Grundy.
But the fact the team took second in the Pizza Hut Classic in St. George a couple of weeks ago, shows how good this team can be. And they did play well on Friday evening, but the breaks just went the other way.
Now it’s time for a road trip to Montrose, Colo. for the three game Montrose Tournament; one game on Friday and two on Saturday.
Then the preseason will be over; on March 25, they will face Lehi for the first time as a regular league opponent in baseball at home. That’s when this tough preseason will start to pay off.