ETV News stock photo by Dusty Butler
Since Carbon and Emery lost last weekend, they both started the three-day state tournament in the losers bracket with no margin for error. The Dinos took on American Leadership Academy with little problems. Carbon scored in every inning and went on to ten-run the Eagles, 12-2, in five.
The Dinos tallied six doubles in the contest, two of which came from Rylan Hart. Derick Robison led the team with three RBIs while Brayton Nielsen and Jordan Fossat tallied two ribbies apiece. Jacob Vasquez started on the mound and gave up two runs in four innings while Cooper Schade pitched a hitless fifth.
The Spartans, on the other hand, had a more eventful first game with North Sanpete. Emery grabbed two runs in the first but then went into the bottom of the second trailing 3-2. The Spartans tied it up in that half inning and went on to take the lead in the fourth with two more runs. It looked to be Emery’s game as the Spartans were up 10-3 going into the final inning. Disaster struck, however, as the Hawks would not go away. North Sanpete went on an improbable, season-saving, two-out rally to push eight runs across and take the lead 11-10. The Spartans regrouped and found two runs in the bottom of the seventh to walk it off and advance to the next round.
Those two wins put Emery and Carbon on a collision course in an elimination game. The stage was set for an exciting rivalry matchup, which would also break the season series tie since each of the teams took a game in the regular season.
The big storyline in this one was Carbon’s sophomore Wyatt Falk, who started on the mound and dominated the game. There were only two innings in which a baserunner reached scoring position as Falk kept the Spartans off balance.
The Dino offense took advantage of Trevin Wakefield and began to inflict damage. They scored two runs in the second and three runs in the third to take a 5-0 lead. The Spartans loaded the bases in the top of the fourth, but they were unable to make anything of it as Falk and the Dinos slammed the door shut.
Fossat then smashed a two-run digger over the left field fence in the bottom of the fourth to break the game open. Kade Dimick’s subsequent triple chased Wakefield out of the game, but the damage had already been done. Dimick came around to score to put the Dinos up eight. Falk seemingly got better as the game went on and the Dinos walked it off in the sixth with two more runs to send their foes packing.
Falk pitched a complete game shutout and only gave up two hits and three walks through six innings. He struck out eight, including two in the final frame. Ridge Nielson and Fossat each had two ribbies as the Dinos scored in bunches.
Carbon will now advance to play Judge Memorial at 1:30 p.m. on Friday. Catch all the action on ETV Channel 10 and online at etvnews.com/livesports.