ST. GEORGE – Who said 13 was unlucky? As it turns out, 13 is a great number for the Snow Canyon softball team, which won its 13th game of the season (with no losses) Friday afternoon with a 3-1 defeat of Dixie.
“You know, we don’t really talk about the record or the streak or anything like that,” coach Brandyn Sargent said. “We just want to go out and play hard and have fun and if we win then that’s great.”
Sports curmudgeons may accuse Sargent of sandbagging a little bit, but she seems to be practicing what she preaches. With the Lady Warriors holding onto a 3-1 lead in the seventh, Dixie got its first two batters on base against SC’s ace pitcher, Brytni Gurney. Sargent, sensing the enormity of the moment, and perhaps the pressure mounting, took a stroll out to the pitcher’s circle. The exchange with Gurney and the rest of infield was brief.
“I just told them to breathe and have fun and just do our thing,” Sargent said.
Gurney then delivered a pitch to Dixie’s Aubri Challis, who blooped a ball into shallow right field. Too deep to be an infield fly ball, the Dixie runners were caught in a quandary: Leave the bag and hope the ball drops or stay home and maybe get forced out if it does drop.
Snow Canyon’s Skylar Gates, on a dead run, made the over the shoulder catch, then doubled the Dixie runner off of first base for a double play. Gurney then struck out the final batter to close out the win.
“That was probably the play of the year,” Gurney said of Gates’ sprinting grab. “That was amazing. I don’t know how she caught that ball, but it saved the game for us. With the runners moving, if she doesn’t make that play, it’s bases loaded and nobody out.”
Give Dixie credit for hanging with a Snow Canyon team that hasn’t had many close games. Ten of the Lady Warriors 13 wins have been by three runs or more and nine of those by five runs or more.
“Dixie’s a great team and I am thrilled that we got the win at their place,” Sargent said. “Their pitcher threw a great game. We weren’t given anything out there. We had to go out and take it.”
Dixie led early on, grabbing a 1-0 edge in the bottom of the first inning when Hannah Nyberg scored on a wild pitch. But it was a bittersweet run as Dixie had the bases loaded with no one out. After Nyberg scored, Gurney forced two pop-ups and a strikeout.
It stayed 1-0 until the fourth when Snow Canyon tied it on back to back doubles by Mitzie Gates and Gurney. Later in the inning, McKenzie Langston hit a sacrfice fly to put Snow Canyon ahead 2-1.
With Gurney on cruise control in the middle innings, the Lady Warriors added an insurance run. Skylar Gates singled and went to second on a wild pitch. She then scored on a single by Langston to make it 3-1.
Gurney got the win and has 12 of the 13 Ws for the Lady Warriors, who next play at Pine View Apr. 12.
Krista DeKorver has been a trooper for Dixie, keeping her team in most games, though her record falls to 5-6. The Lady Flyers are 9-5 overall and 2-3 in region play. Dixie’s next game is Tuesday at home against Canyon View.
Canyon View 8, Desert Hills 1
Josie Platt picked up her fourth win of the season as the Lady Falcons cruised past the Thunder. Kenzi Redd homered and doubled twice and Canyon View picked up its third straight win. The Lady Falcons also got three hits from Savanah Eckhardt. CV is now 5-7 overall and 3-2 in region. Desert Hills fell to 1-10 and 0-5.
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