ST. GEORGE — In the regular season’s final baseball game Friday night, the Dixie Flyers won at home against Pine View, thereby clinching the Region 9 championship.

Meanwhile, the Desert Hills Thunder defeated Snow Canyon to finish in second place with a 10-2 record. Snow Canyon dropped to 7-5 in region with the loss and will enter the 4A playoffs as a No. 3 seed.

Cedar, which was idle this week, will be the No. 4 seed from Region 9, as the Redmen finished their season with a 5-7 record.

The three remaining teams in the region all finished 3-9 and in a three-way tie for fifth place, thanks to Canyon View’s win over Hurricane Friday afternoon.

Following are short recaps of each of Friday’s games, and a look ahead to the playoffs.

Dixie 4, Pine View 1

At Dixie, neither team scored until the fourth inning, when Pine View’s Maklain Briggs walked with the bases loaded, giving the Panthers a 1-0 lead. Dixie pitcher Brenden Blanchard then got out of the jam by striking out the next batter for the third out.

Dixie then tied the game 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth, thanks to Ajay Leavitt’s single that scored Reggie Graff.

In the bottom of the fifth, Cooper Vest drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly, after which Blake Oaks singled home another run to make it 3-1.

Dixie’s fourth and final run game in the sixth inning, when Asher Anderson hit an RBI single.

Blanchard was the winning pitcher, allowing just two hits in five innings while striking out 10. Kayler Yates earned a save by throwing the final two innings of strong relief.

As the Region 9 champion, Dixie will host opening round games next Saturday, May 11, with four seeded teams (each from a different region) playing twice on Dixie’s home field. The three teams that win at least one game Saturday will advance to the double-elimination state 4A tournament, scheduled for May 15-18 at Lindquist Field in Ogden.

Dixie’s first opponent next Saturday is still to be determined, pending the outcomes of games early next week among the other 4A regions.

Desert Hills 10, Snow Canyon 3

At Snow Canyon, the Desert Hills Thunder scored five runs in the top of the first inning and stayed ahead the remainder of the game.

Right after Drew Thorpe singled home the game’s first run, Bronson Andrus belted a two-run homer, scoring Thorpe and himself.

Snow Canyon’s Tim Shakespeare got the Warriors on the board with a two-run double in the bottom of the first.

Desert Hills went on to extend their lead with two more runs in the second, then added one run each in the fourth through the sixth frames.

Starter Dallen Turner pitched the first four innings, allowing five hits and striking out four in picking up the win, while reliever Blake Milne threw the final three innings, allowing one hit and striking out six.

As the No. 2 seed from Region 9, Desert Hills will play Region 11’s No. 3 seed (either Tooele or Park City) at 10 a.m. Saturday, at either Bear River or Mountain Crest, which finished in a first-place tie in Region 12 with 11-4 records.

Meanwhile, Snow Canyon will play its first and second-round games next Saturday in Utah County at Region 10’s top-seeded school. That could be Spanish Fork, Salem Hills or Lehi, depending on the outcome of the last few regular-season games to be played by Region 10 schools on Monday and Tuesday. Note: see update at bottom of story for first-round playoff matchups and locations.

Canyon View 8, Hurricane 2

The Canyon View Falcons picked up their third win of the season with an 8-2 victory at home over Hurricane Friday afternoon.

The Falcons jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning, then added five more runs in the fifth to pull ahead 8-0.

Josh Macinnis belted a three-run homer during the Falcons’ fifth-inning rally.

Macinnis, a senior, picked up the pitching victory in his final game as a Falcon. He pitched all but the last out of the game, when he relinquished the mound to junior Trevor Farrow.

With two out in the seventh, Hurricane senior Kage Aki Paleka hit a two-run homer to break the shutout. Farrow then retired the next batter to end the game. Both teams finished the season with 3-9 records in region play, tying them for fifth place along with Pine View.

Region 9 final regular-season baseball standings (top four teams make playoffs)

Dixie 11-1 (19-3)
Desert Hills 10-2 (22-3)
Snow Canyon 7-5 (17-8)
Cedar 5-7 (11-11)
Pine View 3-9 (8-13)
Hurricane 3-9 (9-14)
Canyon View 3-9 (7-14)

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Update May 8, 11 p.m. Now that the other 4A regions have completed their final regular season games, the locations and opponents of Saturday’s first-round games are set. Region 9’s top seed Dixie will play its first playoff game at home Saturday against Stansbury at 1 p.m., No. 2 seed Desert Hills will face Tooele at Mountain Crest High School in Hyrum at 10 a.m., No. 3 seed Snow Canyon will play Park City at Spanish Fork at 11 a.m. and fourth-seeded Cedar will play Juan Diego Catholic High School at Juan Diego in Sandy at 11:30 a.m. Click here to see full bracket.

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