Snow Canyon Juniors open with win; Dixie Majors also heading to regionals

VANCOUVER, Wash. — Behind stellar pitching performances from Matt Kitchen and Tyson Fisher,  the Snow Canyon Warriors upset a perennial Western Regional Powerhouse Arizona 5-4 Wednesday.

It was a pitchers’ duel to start, with neither team scoring in the first two innings. Arizona opened the scoring in the third with two runs.

For Snow Canyon, Kitchen started the bottom of the third with a single. After a stolen base and sacrifice, Kitchen scored the first run of the game for the Utah champs.  The Warriors rallied for three more in the fourth starting with a sacrifice fly from Austin Deming (scoring Seth Smith). Jed Jensen followed up with a two-run single after Tyson Fisher was intentionally walked.

The Arizona team did not go down with out a fight, answering back with two runs in the top of the sixth.  The second run of the inning and tying run came off  a perfectly executed suicide squeeze bunt.

The scored remained tied 4-4 until the bottom of the seventh. With one out and runners at first and second, Austin Staheli laced a single to left field to load the bases and set the stage for a dramatic walk off at bat. With the count even at 2-2, Brooks Sampson was hit with a pitch and the winning runner was pushed across the plate.

Kitchen pitched six innings, giving up just 4 runs.  Tyson Fisher picked up the win, getting three outs in the seventh without giving up a run.

Next up for the Snow Canyon Warriors will be the Nevada State Champions from Reno, Nevada. Game time is set for noon PST on Thursday. All the action can be seen on live internet stream at http://juniorregionals.com.

Dixie Majors headed to regional in California

Dixie Little League’s Majors team will play at Regionals in San Bernardino, Calif., after rallying through the one-loss bracket of the Utah Little League All-Star Tournament in Cedar City last week.

The Dixie stars opened the tourney with a loss to rival Washington, but then rallied and made all the way to the championship. Dixie then beat Washington twice to earn a trip to the West Regional for the second straight year.

Dixie Majors’ first team will play Friday at 8 p.m. against Nevada.  Dixie will have Saturday and Sunday off and then play Southern California Monday at 5:30 p.m. Dixie will also play games Tuesday and Wednesday.

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