ST. GEORGE — Big scores and defensive miscues were plentiful in the second week of Region 9 baseball action.

Local teams are getting into the swing of the season as the gauntlet of region competition only gets tougher.

Snow Canyon and Pine View are off to 2-0 starts in the region although they’ve both played fewer games.

Dixie and Crimson Cliffs are both 3-1 in the early season region standings while Desert Hills has split both of its local series so far and is 2-2.

According to Maxpreps, both Cedar and Hurricane are 0-4 in region play. Cedar scored nine runs while surrendering 49 runs against in those four games.

Hurricane, in its four Region 9 games, has scored once and given up 56 runs.

The next Region 9 series are Tuesday, March 26, when Snow Canyon is at Pine View and Desert Hills is at Hurricane, both at 7:30 p.m. Crimson Cliffs is at Cedar on the same day at 3 p.m.

Check The Fan Sports Network website for which games will be broadcast.

Crimson Cliffs 15, Desert Hills 9 | Desert Hills 13, Crimson Cliffs 5

The backyard rivals each won on the road in a high-scoring series.

Tuesday at Desert Hills (8-4 overall), the Mustangs stampeded to a 7-0 lead after four innings and upped that advantage to 13-0 after the top of the sixth inning.

The home team Thunder outscored Crimson 9-2 at that point but it was too little too late to catch up to the visitors.

Senior Steele Barben pitched the win for Crimson (9-4), recording seven strikeouts.

Kyler Skinner and Jason McArthur swung the big bats for the Mustangs – each hit a three-run home run. Tyler West doubled and drove in two and Dalton Davis contributed two RBI for the winners.

Ryker Taylor and Harmon Skeene each batted home two runs for Desert Hills while three Thunder batters – Kobe Goodman, Jace Fillmore, Crew Christensen – recorded a solo RBI.

Wednesday at Washington Fields, Crimson again jumped ahead early with a five-run second inning.

Desert Hills flipped the script with a six-run fourth frame. The Mustangs plated one more in the fifth and put up another six-spot in the sixth, taking advantage of walks and hit batsmen.

Four Crimson pitchers walked a total of eight Thunder batters in the contest. A combined four Desert Hills batters were hit by pitches.

Desert Hills freshman Jaxton Holman starred at the plate with two hits and four RBI.

On the mound, Holman scattered three hits in four innings and gave up five runs. He struck out five and walked five before giving way to Andrew Wilson, who threw three innings of scoreless baseball for the Thunder.

Wilson walked none and struck out three in a sparkling relief performance.

Snow Canyon 24, Hurricane 0 | Snow Canyon 15, Hurricane 0

In Hurricane (5-5) Tuesday night, Kyson Goates pitched four innings for Snow Canyon, holding the Tigers to one hit (a single by Brycen McCauley). Goates walked one batter and struck out six.

Ten different Warriors recorded a hit in the win, led by Ryder Harrison’s three knocks and four RBI. Crew Secrist also finished with three hits and four RBI for the winners.

The Tigers hurt their own cause with seven fielding errors.

The Warriors followed the same script Wednesday night in Snow Canyon (7-2). Trey Vaughn and Dewy Gibb combined to toss another one-hitter for Snow Canyon.

Gibb walked three and fanned seven Tigers while Vaughn walked one and K’d one.

It was McCauley who again got Hurricane’s only hit in the contest, this one a double.

Harrison continued to pound the ball for Snow Canyon, cranking out four hits for three RBI. JonPaul Rowley plated three more with his two hits in the win.

Three different Warriors – Damon Ence, Crew Secrist, Corbin Hafen – contributed two RBI apiece for the winners.

Dixie 12, Cedar 1 | Dixie 15, Cedar 0

The Dixie Flyers (10-2) swept the Cedar Reds (2-10) with convincing back-to-back wins on successive days.

Tuesday afternoon in Cedar City, Dixie scored its first run in the top of the first when Carter Turley hit a sacrifice fly to center, plating Ridge Erickson, who’d been hit by a pitch to start the game.

Cedar tied the game 1-1 in the bottom of the first when Cody Nash grounded out to shortstop, bringing in Krew Giles from third on a fielder’s choice play (Giles had led off the inning with a triple).

That was all the scoring the Reds would muster, however, as Dixie went on to score four runs in the third and three more in the fourth. By the end of the fifth inning, the Flyers led 12-1, thereby ending the game early due to the mercy rule.

Third-baseman Logan Leavitt went 2-for-2 and drove in three runs for the Flyers, while center-fielder Louis Franco hit three singles and had one RBI.

Winning pitcher Braxton Yates, who threw the first four innings, allowed one run and two hits while walking one and striking out eight.

Parker Johnson took the loss on the mound for Cedar.

Wednesday night in St. George, the Flyers exploded for eight runs in the second inning then added seven more in the third to account for all of the scoring in Dixie’s eventual 15-0 victory.

Leavitt belted a double and a single, driving in four runs, while Turley went 3-for-3 with a double and two singles.

Starting pitcher Jake Andreas picked up the win for the Flyers, allowing just one hit over three innings while walking one batter and striking out two.

Cedar southpaw Koden Lunt, who pitched the first two and one-third innings for the Reds, took the loss.

– written by Jeff Richards

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