Sentinels, SW Baseball Academy take tie late into the night

Written by Andy Griffin
June 8, 2016
SBA vs Sentinels, American Legion Baseball, June 7, 2016, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — A nine-inning affair turned into a complete-game tie for the two teams involved in Tuesday night’s American Legion baseball contest at Pine View High School.

sentinelsThe St. George Sentinels gave up a pair of runs to the Southwest Baseball Academy in the seventh inning and the two managers agreed to end the game in an 8-8 tie with a busy week ahead and pitching arms at a premium.

“We have six more games this week,” Sentinels skipper Shane Johanson said. “Tonight was a friendly, as they say in soccer.”

It may have been a friendly, but it was played hard, with the rosters of both teams being lifted right out of the all-star units from Region 9 (and a couple of Region 12 stars from Canyon View).

Makai Maclellan (16), SBA vs Sentinels, American Legion Baseball, June 7, 2016, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Makai Maclellan (16), SBA vs Sentinels, American Legion Baseball, June 7, 2016, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

The SBA team, led by the likes of Jackson Vasi, Treyson Esplin, Garrett Hyde and Rykker Tom, jumped out to a 5-1 lead through the first two innings and still held a 6-3 advantage heading into the bottom of the fifth. But the Sentinels, led by the likes of Kash Walker, Tobie Swenson, Chance Vowell and Ryke Erickson, rallied for five runs in that inning to take an 8-6 lead into the late innings.

SBA plated a pair of unearned runs off of a couple of St. George errors to tie the game at 8-8 in the top of the seventh. The game was scheduled for nine innings, but with the Sentinels having already used five pitchers and a full slate of games ahead, the coaches agreed to call it a night when neither team was able to score in the eighth or ninth.

Anthony Cornwall (from Moapa Valley) led the Sentinels with three hits and two RBIs, while Ryke Erickson (Pine View) had two hits and scored twice.

Hyde (Dixie) had three hits, including two doubles, for SBA and Vasi (Canyon View) knocked in a pair of runs.

The Sentinels play in Las Vegas Thursday and Friday and return home Friday night for a game against the Salt Lake Gulls at PVHS at 6 p.m.

Boxscore: sentsba6716

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @oldschoolag

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2016, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andy Griffin has been in sports media since 1989 and has covered BYU, Utah State and the Utah Jazz as well as all sports in southern Utah. A journalism graduate of USU, Andy has carried on a dual career as both a sports writer and a sports broadcaster and has been heard around the country. He has also been published in USA Today, Sport magazine, The Sporting News, Fairways magazine, the Los Angeles Times and locally in the Deseret News, the Salt Lake Tribune and the Spectrum. Andy was “The Voice of Region 9 sports,” for many years. He also hosted a daily sports talk show for three years called AG in the a.m. Andy has been married to his college sweetheart Shelly for 28 years and has five children ages 13 to 25.

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