Dixie christens new Flyer Field with win over Canyon View

Written by Andy Griffin
March 9, 2016
Dixie's Tyson Fisher (18), Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 9, 2016, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — Dixie didn’t play its best baseball and it certainly wasn’t pretty Wednesday night, but the Flyers gritted out a 6-1 win over Canyon View in the first official game played at the new Flyer Field.

dixie-logocanyon-view-logoDixie drew 14 walks off of three Falcons pitchers, but also left 13 runners on base in the five-run victory. But the numbers don’t mean much to head coach Danny Ipson, who was tickled that his team could mark the momentous occasion with a victory.

“We’ve put a lot of blood, sweat and tears in being able to be here on the new field,” he said. “A lot of people have put assets and work to be able to do this and we sure appreciate it.”

Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 9, 2016, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 9, 2016, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

Dixie actually hosts the Donnie Pymm/Pizza Hut Classic the next three days. Ipson said he wanted to get this first game in before a line-up of visiting teams competed in the new ballpark.

“We wanted this first game to be us, not one of the tournament games,” he said. “We talked to (Canyon View) Coach Jacobsen about putting the game together and he brought it up that they were the last team to play us on the old field and the first team to play us on this field. But it’s good for us to come out and get the win.”

Ipson had a plan in place for his pitching staff preceding the big weekend tournament — give each pitcher two innings of work and no more. The plan worked perfectly as the Dixie staff of Tyson Fisher, Wyatt Woodland, Trevor Connell and Kaylor Yates allowed just four hits and three walks. The only CV run was unearned.

It also helped that the Canyon View pitching staff came out, well, wild. The trio of Jackson Vasi, Daelen Jorgensen and Payton Higgins surrendered 14 walks and also hit three Dixie batters.

Dixie's Tyson Fisher (18), Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 9, 2016, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Dixie’s Tyson Fisher (18), Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 9, 2016, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

“We really wanted to come out and hit the ball and move runners, but the umpire had a pretty tight zone,” said Dixie second baseman Hobbs Nyberg. “We got walked a lot. But we got six runs on the board, so that worked.”

Four of those runs came in the first inning, with Nyberg leading off the bottom of the first with a walk. He later stole third and scored on a throwing error by the Falcons catcher. Fisher then delivered an RBI single to make it 2-0 and Woodland and Dayton Dempsey each forced across runs later in the inning on bases loaded walks. By the time the last out was recorded in the first, it was 4-0.

The Flyers added two more runs in the fourth. Connell hit a hot shot on a grounder to short (ruled an error) with the bases loaded to make it 5-0 and Yates walked in a run with two down to make it 6-0.

“Our defense played great,” Fisher said. “This field is amazing. That old field, there’s a special feeling. But we’ve got a new field and we’re just happy to be here.”

Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 9, 2016, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 9, 2016, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

Canyon View’s only score came in the sixth on an RBI single by Xavier Stoker that plated Higgins.

Dixie, 1-0, had just two hits in the game, both singles by Nyberg and Fisher. Nyberg also walked twice and stole two bases. Duncan Staheli had three walks in the game.

The Flyers play twice Friday (1 p.m. vs. Carbon and 7 p.m. vs. Stansbury) and twice on Saturday.

Canyon View, 0-1, had four hits in the game, including a double by Joey Lambeth. The Falcons play in the KJ Harrison Classic this weekend, beginning with a 12:30 p.m. Friday game against Maple Mountain at Snow Canyon High School.

Boxscore: cvdix3916

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @oldschoolag

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2016, all rights reserved.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andy Griffin has been in sports media since 1989 and has covered BYU, Utah State and the Utah Jazz as well as all sports in southern Utah. A journalism graduate of USU, Andy has carried on a dual career as both a sports writer and a sports broadcaster and has been heard around the country. He has also been published in USA Today, Sport magazine, The Sporting News, Fairways magazine, the Los Angeles Times and locally in the Deseret News, the Salt Lake Tribune and the Spectrum. Andy was “The Voice of Region 9 sports,” for many years. He also hosted a daily sports talk show for three years called AG in the a.m. Andy has been married to his college sweetheart Shelly for 28 years and has five children ages 13 to 25.

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.