ST. GEORGE – Moral victories don’t mean much, especially if the scoreboard doesn’t agree.
Pine View out-played Canyon View in most aspects of Friday’s Region 9 softball collision, but the Lady Falcons are the ones who emerged with a 4-3 win.
The Lady Panthers had more hits (6-4) and fewer errors (3-1) and threatened to tie or take the lead in every one of the final three innings, but couldn’t push that key run across.
“We had so many chances,” coach Randy Green said. “We had runners in scoring position in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, but didn’t score.”
Canyon View took a 4-1 lead into the fourth inning on the strength of two two-run home runs. Kenzie Sawyer hit the first one in the second inning and Savanah Eckhardt nailed her deep ball in the third.
Elaine Asaasa helped Pine View get within 4-3 with a homer of her own, but after that two-run outburst in the top of the fourth, Pine View could not score again.
It was a key win for Canyon View, which has a one-game lead on Pine View for second place and owns the tiebreaker after having now beaten the Lady Panthers twice.
“We’re pretty much locked into third now,” Green said. “You know, it was a really good game. Kiki (Anderson) pitched well except those two home runs. But we just couldn’t make a play late in the game.”
The Panthers, 17-4 overall and 7-4 in region, play a non-league game vs. Enterprise Wednesday and close out the regular season Friday at Cedar.
Canyon View, 11-9 and 7-3, plays at Desert Hills Tuesday and then finishes at home against Dixie.
Snow Canyon 14, Desert Hills 2
As expected in a first place vs. last place game, it was never close as the Lady Warriors cruised to their 18th straight win.
What was a surprise was that the Lady Thunder took the undefeated SC team to seven innings, no mercy-rule needed. Snow Canyon scored eight in the top of the seventh to put the game away.
Skylar Gates had two doubles and Brytni Gurney doubled and pitched her 18th win as the Warriors start gearing up for the state tournament.
SC plays at home vs. Dixie Tuesday, then closes the season with a non-league game against Enterprise.
Desert Hills, still looking for its first region win, plays at home vs. Canyon View Tuesday and then at Hurricane to end the year.
Dixie 11, Cedar 5 (Thursday)
The Lady Flyers played perhaps their best game of the year in the easy win against Cedar, pounding out 10 hits and scoring at least two runs in four of their six at-bats.
Hannah Nyberg and Stacia Gelter each doubled and Dixie jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first two innings.
The win pulls the Flyers into a tie with Cedar for the fourth playoff spot. Dixie also has the tiebreak, having swept Cedar. However, Cedar has a slightly easier closing schedule, finishing with Hurricane at home Tuesday and Pine View at home Friday.
The Lady Flyers close out at first-place Snow Canyon Tuesday and then at Canyon View Friday.
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