ST. GEORGE — Snow Canyon is way beyond sneaking up on anyone. Way beyond. So the Warriors, who are looking to win their third straight 3A baseball championship in 2014, are left with the only other alternative: Show up as heavy favorites and simply crush all challengers.

That’s what they did Friday at the KJ Harrison Memorial Invitational, blasting 3A Judge Memorial 15-1 and then dominating 5A Herriman 7-1.

“Yeah, they played well,” SC coach Reed Sechrist said.

(story continues below)

His team, which is a perennial contender, had some retooling to do in the offseason with the loss of some stars, most notably fireball lefthander Riley Gates. But things look just fine in Warrior Nation as SC opened the 2014 campaign in complete control, utterly dominating the Bulldogs.

The mercy-rule shortened game was Snow Canyon’s from the get-go and the Warriors cruised to an early lead.

The late game, against Herriman, wasn’t mercy-shortened, but was almost as dominant as the Mustangs were never really in it. Tyler Wardell pitched a complete game and also hit a double to help himself. Snow Canyon struck for two runs in the first inning and added three more in the second inning for an early 5-0 lead.

The Warriors plated two more in the fourth to go up 7-0. Herriman finally got on the board with a run in the seventh, but that was it as SC began the season 2-0.

The Warriors battle Maple Mountain at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Click on photo to enlarge it, then use your left-right arrow keys to cycle through the gallery. 

Email: sports@stgnews.com

Twitter: @oldschoolag

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2014, all rights reserved.