Four takeaways from opening days of St. George Classic
The 2022 St. George Summer Classic kicked off on Wednesday night, with three local area teams in action in the eight-team tournament, set to conclude on Saturday night.
Through two nights of action, the St. George Sentinels (2-0), and Utah Rangers (Cedar City) (1-0) are unbeaten heading into Friday’s games.
The Rangers knocked off Dixie in a 5-4 thriller, while a pair of excellent starting pitching performances for the Sentinels have them on the brink of taking the Freedom Bracket.
Youthful Rangers make their mark
The 18U Utah Rangers (Cedar City) feature just a few recently-graduated seniors, with most of the roster being rising seniors or juniors.
Of the up-and-comers, the vast majority come from Canyon View, with products from Enterprise and Beaver also in the lineup.
The club was also without hand-throwing right-hander Myles Topham (Cedar).
Despite the youth of the Rangers, the club took down Dixie 5-4 on Wednesday night with a late rally in the opening game of the 2022 St. George Classic.
“I don’t know if we should’ve won that game, but we’ll take it on their home field. It’s exciting,” admitted Rangers head coach Jamie Cyphers.
With a team chock-full of 3A and 2A talent, the group jumped at the chance to play larger-area schools.
“Oh absolutely,” said Cyphers, when asked if his group was eager to play larger competition. “We love to travel and play anybody. Dixie is such a good program. Coach Ipson and his guys-we know a lot of these kids. They’ve been playing against each other in the 2024 and ’23 class, so we have a tremendous amount of respect. I don’t know if we should’ve won that game, but we’ll take it on their home field. It’s exciting.”
Trailing 1-0 in the third inning, the Rangers tagged Cayson Bell for three runs.
A fielder’s choice off the bat of Brekken Campbell (Cedar) tied the game at 1-1.
Singles by Tommy English (Canyon View) and starting pitcher Troy Carrizosa.
Dixie regained the lead with three in the fifth on a wild pitch, a Trace Franco sacrifice fly, and a bases-loaded walk.
A pair of wild pitches in the top half of the seventh pushed the Rangers in front once again.
In the bottom of the seventh with two runners in scoring position and only one out, Franco was cut down at the plate by second baseman Zac Millet.
Holden Miller (Canyon View) then struck out Max Orton to close the deal for the Rangers.
"We're a young group down here. We have a couple of kids who are down at CBA at a showcase in Arizona and a couple of guys at a showcase in Omaha so we've got a lot of 2024 kids out here, so we were just hoping we'd come out, survive this game and see how the rest of the week goes."
Dixie rebounds against Upper Valley
After falling to the Rangers on Wednesday night, Dixie bounced back with an impressive offensive effort against Upper Valley (ID), while Daniel Acuna worked through six innings in a 12-7 win.
“I thought he was around the zone with his fastball for the most part for the game was working ahead of the hitters,” said head coach Danny Ipson. “I think any time you do that, it’s going to translate to success and I think that’s what he was able to do today.”
Dixie’s offense spotted Acuna three runs on the top of the first on a double by Braxton Yates and RBIs from Cooper Bartholomew and Luis Acuna.
A three-run bottom of the third cut the Dixie lead to 5-4.
Dixie scored a pair of runs in the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings to blow the game open and take a 12-4 lead into the bottom of the seventh.
Bartholomew added to his first-inning RBI with a two-run double in the sixth, and finished 2/4 at the plate.
Yates and Franco each had RBI singles in the seventh.
Pitching fuels Sentinels to two opening-round wins
Behind the arms of Brock and Brandon Roundy, the St. George Sentinels rattled off a pair of 7-1 wins to grab the top spot in the Freedom Bracket heading into Friday’s games.
Brock struck out 14 over seven innings of work on Wednesday night in a win over Jackson (WY).
Brandon pitched six shutout innings on Thursday, allowing six hits and striking out five.
“They throw the ball with velocity, but I thought they located really well. Canyon (Kutch) has called really good games, moving the ball around and changing speeds,” said Sentinel head coach Shane Johanson after Thursday night’s win over Colorado Mesa.
2021 Pine View graduate Tristen Bird laced two hard-hit doubles into the left-center field gap on Thursday night, despite not seeing much live pitching in a year.
Bird collected an RBI on his second double in the fifth that scored Jayz Estridge (Crimson Cliffs).
“He waited for a pitch he could hit hard and just did a really good job,” said Johanson Tristen hasn’t played anywhere this last year and I like guys like that are looking for a place to play when they didn’t play during the off-season. So, it’s really impressive for someone who hasn’t picked up a baseball since last summer.”
Estridge would allow the lone run in the top of the seventh on a sacrifice fly.
New competition a learning opportunity
Even with three local teams playing the St. George Classic, the opportunity to see outside talent has been one of the highlights for each of the teams.
“That’s one of the reasons we do it. It’s fun to have some of the local teams but its exciting to have schools come from out of state and travel. It gives us a different look. We were in Denver last week so it’s fun to travel, but it’s also fun to host.”
Dixie got its first look at competition that lies outside of southern Utah on Thursday.
“I think any time that you can see a fresh face it’s almost like a new game for us. I think it’s a good opportunity to see some teams from other parts of the west and we’ll see where we stack up and compete with them,” said Ipson.
Sean Ellertson is a sports reporter for the St. George Spectrum & Daily News. To continue to support his work, please subscribe to The Spectrum. Follow Sean on Twitter @SeanEllertson.
This article originally appeared on St. George Spectrum & Daily News: Three takeaways from opening days of St. George Classic
