4A State Baseball – An old playoff baseball adage played out Friday night at Salt Lake Community College’s Cate Field: Good pitching beats good hitting.
4A State Baseball:
Snow Canyon won the 4A State Baseball Championship opener against Dixie 4-2 as Warriors pitchers Kyson Gotts and Talan Kelly shut down the Flyers’ potent offense.
“Every inning I have to go out there and treat it like it’s zero-zero,” Goetz told the St. George News after tossing five innings for the win. He gave up two runs on six hits, walked two Flyer batters and struck out five.
The senior righthander finished his career in Snow Canyon with a 5-0 career record against crosstown rival Dixie.
“I’ve always been given that opportunity since I was a sophomore to show what I’ve got against them,” Gotts said. “Grind my way every time, and today I got to do it again so I’m glad I got to do it.”
The Warriors couldn’t have put together a better pitching performance in the first game of the 4A State Baseball championship.
After Goetz worked his five innings, Kelly relieved him for the final two innings.
“We’ve had good pitching all year,” Kelly said. “We know we’re deep in pitching. To be a part of it, to be a big part, to get behind these people who do their job and stop it for us, it’s amazing. There’s no better feeling than that.”
Kelly’s line was two innings pitched, no hits, no runs, one walk and four strikeouts for the future Utah Tech Trailblazer.
Senior Makaio Swansen greeted Dixie starting pitcher Braxton Yates with a leadoff double on the first pitch of the game.
Senior Crews plated Sechrist Swansen with a two-out RBI double and Snow Canyon quickly took a 1-0 advantage.
Secrist beat an infield single for an RBI and Hayden Smith beat an RBI single in the top of the third for a 3-0 Snow Canyon lead.
Dixie was back at the bottom of the frame when Yates made Goats pay for one of his mistakes of the night.
Yates crushed a 2-run homer over the right field fence and Dixie was back in the game, trailing 3-2.
Ledger Shipp hit an RBI single in the top of the sixth for the Warriors, and Kelly needed a two-run cushion to secure the save.
Yates took the hard-luck loss on the mound for Dixie, pitching 5.1 innings. He was tagged for four runs off seven hits. He walked four Warriors and struck out four others.
The teams played a slick ballgame with no errors and combined for 13 hits.
4A State Baseball:
Gotts compares his game to his hero, Greg Maddux. The Hall of Fame pitcher has built a career on changing speeds and identifying his fastball, and Gotts follows the same approach.
“Once I get to MLB I’ll perhaps confirm that number,” Gotts said. “I’ve always preached Greg Maddux and I’ve always said it doesn’t matter how many balls you throw.”
Kelly dealt his biggest challenge of the night in the bottom of the 6th. The Flyers had two runners on and BYU-bound catcher Reese Erickson stood at the plate.
Erickson completes the count before hitting out on a pitch in the dirt.
“Reese is a great hitter, definitely gets a tough out all the time,” Kelly said. “That was a large one for us.”
Kelly and all the Warriors seniors were just three years ago when Snow Canyon last won the 4A State Baseball championship, and they did so at Cate Field.
They will look to repeat that history tomorrow in Game 2 at 11am. If Dixie wins that contest, the deciding “if necessary” third game is set for 1:30 p.m.