| Carbon’s team gets together after a recent win on their home field. Can they do this again during the state tournament? |
When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
Hopefully that will be the motto of the 2006 Carbon High baseball team.
Over the past few seasons Carbon has been used to going into the state tournament as the top team from Region 8.
This year they are going in as number three.
Over the past few seasons Carbon has been used to hosting the first round game of the state tournament at home, on their own comfortable turf.
This year they will have to drive the three hours to Tooele and could face the home squad in the second game of the tournament.
Over the past few seasons, Carbon has gone into the state tournament with a full compliment of pitchers, with relatively few injuries across the entire roster.
This year they will have to play at least the first two games without two of their main men, Adam Martinez and Chase Julian. Both are injured.
Yes, this year is like any other in the past five seasons, and with a format change at the state level, had they won the Region 8 crown, they could have had two games in Price on Saturday.
| Kyle Asay gives Carbon coach Lane Herrick the high five as he passes third base after he hit a home run earlier this season. |
So to defend the state crown the school won last year, they will have to tow the line harder than ever. But then Carbon has faced a lot of baseball adversity before.
In 2001 they faced a hostile crowd when they won the crown against Snow Canyon in St. George.
And last year Adam Martinez pitched unbelievably, game after game to take it again.
Now with another set of adverse circumstances, the team must buck it up at 10 a.m. on Tooele High’s baseball field as they face the second place team from Region 10, Uintah (6-4). It will be the first time in a long time that Carbon (6-4) has met a higher seeded team than themselves in the first round.
If Carbon gets by the Utes, they then would play the winner of the Tooele (9-1)-Snow Canyon (5-5) matchup at 4 p.m.
If they lose their first game they would then play the loser of the same matchup at 1 p.m.
It is a two times you lose you go home tournament. Carbon could still lose one game and still slip into the continuation of the tournament next week at Layton High School on Thursday. Wins there could propel them into the final few teams that would play Friday and Saturday at Lindquist Field in Ogden.
But that scenario means someone playing in Tooele must beat the Buffaloes, who are ranked number one in the 3A ranks with a 17-2 overall record. That will be hard to do.
Who knows. Carbon has come out of voids before to beat teams few thought they would.
But it will take some of that Carbon tough to do so.