Dixie shuts out Cedar to stay alive in American Legion 17U state tourney

Cedar Reds vs. Lone Peak Misfits, American Legion 17U state tournament, Hurricane, Utah, July 14, 2020 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

ST. GEORGE — With a 10-0 shutout win over Cedar Thursday morning, the Dixie 17U baseball team remains alive in the American Legion state championship tournament.

Dixie will next face the Lone Peak Misfits at 7 p.m. Thursday at Hurricane High School. Lone Peak edged Herriman 4-3 Thursday morning, also at Hurricane.

The only two remaining undefeated teams in the tournament are top-seeded Skyline and No. 3 seed Kearns, who are scheduled to face each other Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at Dixie High School. Skyline shut out Lone Peak 6-0 on Wednesday night to stay undefeated, while Kearns beat No. 2 seeded Dixie 10-6 Wednesday night.

The winner of Thursday night’s Dixie vs. Lone Peak contest will then face the loser of the Skyline vs. Kearns game on Friday.  Click here to see full bracket of the double elimination tournament.

Despite being the tournament’s No. 12 seed, Cedar made a strong showing in the tournament, starting with a 12-1 win on Monday over No. 5 seed Hurricane, also known as the Vipers. 

Then, late Tuesday night, Cedar faced Lone Peak. The Reds carried an 11-3 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning, but the Misfits rallied to score eight runs that inning to tie the game 11-11. In the top of the eighth, Cedar’s first batter got on base and the second one was still batting when midnight struck and the automatic sprinklers came on, drenching the field.

The game resumed the following morning at 10 a.m., when Lone Peak managed to hold Cedar scoreless in the top of the eighth, after which the Misfits loaded up the bases, then got a walk-off walk for the winning run, 12-11.

Cedar Reds vs. Lone Peak Misfits, American Legion 17U state tournament, Hurricane, Utah, July 14, 2020 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

That loss dropped Cedar into the one-loss bracket, where they faced Wasatch on Wednesday morning, with the Reds winning 11-7 in extra innings. The game was tied 7-7 in the top of the eighth when Lawson Black singled, driving home two runs and putting Cedar ahead for good. Thomas Carter went 4-for-4 at the plate for the Reds.

The win over Wasatch advanced Cedar to play No. 11 seeded Pine View, also known as the Southern Utah Buffaloes, on Pine View’s home field Wednesday night. Cedar eked out a 9-8 win over Pine View, with Logan Little walking home the go-ahead run in the fifth, Braxtan Torres went 3-for-4 to lead the Reds in hits.

Cedar’s tournament run came to an end Thursday morning with the 10-0 shutout loss to Dixie on Dixie’s home field. Dixie led 4-0 after two innings and still had that same lead heading into the bottom of the fifth, when the Flyers added six runs to end the game early due to the 10-run mercy rule. The Flyers recorded nine hits to Cedar’s one.

Pine View, which lost to Stansbury in a wild 19-14 game on Monday, rebounded to defeat North Cache 9-0 Wednesday morning. The Buffaloes were then eliminated by Cedar in the 9-8 loss later that evening.

Dixie, which started the tournament with a bye on Monday, defeated Herriman 7-2 on Tuesday before losing to Kearns 10-6 on Wednesday.

Hurricane was ousted from the tournament with an 8-7 loss to Helper on Tuesday.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2020, all rights reserved.

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