Region 9’s top seed, Pine View, made a grand statement Saturday, while Cedar emerged unscathed as well in the first two rounds of the 3A State Baseball Tournament. Snow Canyon, like a traveling caravan, managed to gain a split on the day after traversing the state in search of a dry venue to play. Desert Hills had its pod at Bear River (and alternate site Juan Diego) completely washed out and the Thunder will have to play a pair of games Monday.

The Panthers allowed just one run and one hit in two wins in their pod, hosted at Panther Field. Cedar got a huge day from Brecken Lewis — with a little help from younger brother Drake, in taking its two games. The Warriors lost a shootout to a No. 1-seed, Park City, then eliminated last year’s state champ Grantsville. And the Thunder never got a single pitch in during the deluge in the Salt Lake Valley and points north. Here’s a recap of the wild day in the 3A State Tournament:

Pine View 11, Union 1
Pine View 7, Juab 0

The dynamic pitching duo of Harrison Goebel and Dakota Donovan were close to perfect on the day for the Panthers. Goebel had a six-inning no-hitter early in the day against the Cougars, allowing one unearned run and just two walks. Donovan allowed just one hit, an infield single, in shutting out the Wasps in the evening game.

In the first game, Goebel lost the shutout in the fourth inning after hitting Union’s Kyle Hanke, then watching him go to third on an error and eventually score on a sacrifice fly by Zach Roll.

But at that point, Goebel’s teammates had already spotted him a six-run lead. In the sixth, Pine View turned the 6-1 lead into an 11-1 mercy-rule win with a big rally. Donovan had a three-run home run in the sixth and Hunter Hansen knocked in a score with a triple. Donovan had two RBIs in the first inning on a single and another in the second on a groundout. The homer gave him the impressive line of two hits, one run scored and six RBIs.

Goebel ended up with six strikeouts and the Panther offense had 13 hits, including two each by Hansen, Donovan, Goebel, Logan LaFemina and Connor Clark.

In the second round game against Juab, Donovan had the Wasps hitless until a sharply hit ball by Cache Lynn caromed off of a diving Taylor Teagan’s glove at third base. Teagan was able to jump to his feet and pick up the grounder, but had no play at first.

Still, Donovan was masterful, striking out 16 batters. Six of the Juab hitters struck out at least twice and two of those K’d three times.

“He was a machine tonight,” PV coach Mike Gargano said. “He did give up that one hit, so we’ll have to work on that. Just kidding. He was spectacular and Harrison was amazing as well. From a pitching standpoint, they were dialed in. And with their bats, they were just focused in and driving the ball. It was fun to watch.”

Donovan, a junior who made a big splash as a freshman with an 18-strikeout performance against Cedar, got in his only jam of the game in the third inning. With the Panthers ahead 1-0 and one out in the top of the third, he walked Nick Wahlforth, then hit Lynn with a pitch. The runners moved to second and third with a wild pitch, but Donovan struck out Dillon Douglas and Hayden Mangelson to end the threat.

He then struck out the side in the fourth, recorded to Ks in the fifth and struck out the side in the sixth after Lynn’s single, a stretch of 10 strikeouts in 12 batters faced.

It helped that PV rallied for five runs in the bottom of the third. LaFemina led off with a single, followed by a walk from Clark and a single by Goebel that loaded the bases. Donovan solved that with a two-run single to make it 3-0. Hansen loaded the bases with a single, then Blake Ence helped push two more runs home after his hot grounder got past the Juab shortstop. Tyler Johnston wrapped up the rally with an RBI single to make it 6-0. LaFemina added an RBI single in the sixth to cap off the scoring.

For the day, Donovan had eight RBIs and three hits, while LaFemina had five hits and scored three times. Hansen had four hits and scored twice. PV finished with 18 runs and 24 hits in the two games.

The Panthers, 16-8, will play Thursday at 11 a.m. against Carbon, surprise 5-4 winners over Park City Saturday night. The Dinos, 12-10, are the second seed from region 12 and have won six straight.

Stats: unipv5915; juapv5915

Park City 13, Snow Canyon 9
Snow Canyon 12, Grantsville 4

It was kind of a bizarre tail for the Warriors, who waited around at the Salt Lake Community College artificial turf field for the rain showers to stop. It was finally determined that the baseball field at USU-Eastern (formerly College of Easter Utah) was dry and playable, so Snow Canyon, pod host Park City, Grantsville and Carbon would head to Price to play.

The group was able to get several games in, including the Miners’ high-scoring win over Snow Canyon, but the unlit field was inadequate to finish the Warriors-Cowboys game. So the two teams headed to Helper.

In all it was a St. George-to-West Jordan-to-Price-to-Helper-to St. George day for the Warriors, who logged more than 700 miles in the 24 period.

SC did lose its opener to Park City, with Chandler Anderson’s two-run homer sparking a game-deciding five-run fifth for the Miners. PC, 19-5, had an 8-5 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth, but got busy with a rally that included a couple of Snow Canyon errors. SC had a total of four errors and seven walks in the contest, but still had a chance at the end.

Down by eight, the Warriors got one back in the sixth and rallied for three in the top of the seventh to make it 13-9. Snow Canyon had the bases loaded with two outs, with the tying run at the plate. But a deep fly out ended the game and sent the Warriors to the one-loss bracket to face Grantsville.

Against the Cowboys, Snow Canyon (17-8) jumped out for five runs in the top of the first. Freshman Austin Deming and senior Brad Grisenti teamed up for seven hits in the game, with Deming going a perfect 4 for 4.The Warriors added three more in the fourth for an 8-1 lead and never looked back, even though the two teams had to relocate to finish the contest.

Nick Dolce and Isaac Rhea teamed up for the win on the mound, with Dolce pitching five innings in Price and Deming going two frames in Helper. Grisenti homered and Deming stole a couple of bases for the Warriors, who stay alive and will play Payson Thursday at 11 a.m. in St. George.

Grantsville, who won the state title in 2014, ends the season with an 8-17 record.

Stats: scgra5915 scpc5915

Cedar 5, Uintah 0
Cedar 14, Payson 13

Brecken Lewis allowed just one hit, a seventh inning double, as the Redmen opened the day by dominating the Utes in a game played at Hurricane High. Lewis had a two-run double in the first inning and younger brother Drake had two hits and two RBIs for Cedar, which came in as the three-seed from Region 9.

Karter Pope broke up the no-no to lead off the seventh, but Lewis was still in control and ended up facing just two more batters than the minimum. He struck out 10 and walked just one.

In the later game, the Redmen knocked off the No. 1-seed Payson in a shootout. Both teams scored at least one run in each of the first five innings. At one point, Payson led 6-3 and a couple of innings later, Cedar held a 10-7 lead.

The game was tied at 13-13 heading into the seventh when Brecken Lewis came up big once again. His solo homer gave the Redmen the lead and then he pitched a scoreless bottom half to save the win.

Cedar, 20-5, moves on in the winner’s bracket to face whichever team emerges from the Bear River pod in a quarterfinal game Thursday at 1:30 p.m. at Bruce Hurst Field.

Payson, 18-7, will battle Snow Canyon Thursday at 11 a.m. Uintah beat Tooele and eliminated the Buffaloes. The Utes, 18-6, will play a loser out game Thursday against a Bear River pod survivor.

Stats: ceduin5915

Desert Hills-Juan Diego — postponed

Rain washed away the Bear River pod, even after attempts to get the games moved to Juan Diego. The four teams, (D-Hills, Bear River, Juan Diego and Richfield will play Monday). DH battles the Soaring Eagle at 10 a.m. at Fremont High School and will play a second game at 1:30 p.m. — at Bear River if the Bears are involved and at Fremont if Richfield wins against BR.

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