ST. GEORGE — Four baseball teams from Region 9 finished in the top eight in 4A, according to the RPI (ratings percentage index) formula announced Wednesday morning.

That means Dixie, Snow Canyon, Desert Hills and two-time defending 4A state champion Crimson Cliffs will all get byes in this weekend’s regional round of the playoffs.

The other three ball clubs in Region 9 open the playoffs this weekend with only one playing at home.

No. 11 seed Pine View (14-11) hosts No. 22 Sky View Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. to start a best-of-three games series.

Also Friday afternoon at 4 p.m., No. 17 seed Hurricane (7-13) is at No. 16 Cottonwood and No. 19 Cedar (6-19) plays at No. 14 Stansbury.

Dixie (22-3) earned the No. 1 overall seed in the state bracket and Snow Canyon (20-5) is No. 2. Desert Hills finished a strong season at 17-8 to claim the No. 4 seed. Crimson Cliffs (14-8-1) will seek a rare trifecta of state titles as the No. 7 seed.

All four of those teams will host games in the super regional round, starting May 9.

Click here to see the complete 4A state baseball bracket.

Following are recaps of three of the final games in the Region 9 schedule.

Dixie 13, Snow Canyon 7

At Snow Canyon April 26, the Flyers split their season series versus the Warriors with a dominant win on the road.

Senior third baseman Logan Leavitt led Dixie at the plate. His two-run homer in the second gave the Flyers an early 3-0 lead and then he crushed a double off the centerfield wall to key a five-run rally in the sixth.

Leavitt told St. George News that he was sitting on a fastball in both at-bats.

“I love playing these guys. It’s always a hard fight,” Leavitt said.”Got a lot of adrenaline. We need to keep it going.”

It looked like the Flyers were going to run away with the game, up 7-1 after four innings. But Warriors senior Talan Kelly hit a grandslam in the bottom of the fourth to put the home team right back in it, down 7-5. 

“I just think from tonight we were in a position where we knew we were just going to keep chipping away and chipping away,” Dixie coach Danny Ipson said. “Anytime we play Snow Canyon we know they’re going to throw a couple runs at us.”

“And so for us it’s just a matter of not getting too up or too down in regards to what we’re trying to do,” he added.

Dixie responded to Kelly’s slam with a run in the fifth and five more in the sixth to secure the victory.

The Flyers pounded out 16 hits in the win. Trace Franco and Ridge Erickson accounted for three hits apiece. They drove in two and three RBIs, respectively.

Isaac Zepf and Boston Vest each accounted for two RBIs for the winners and Braxton Yates belted a hit and an RBI. 

Kelly led the Warriors with two homers and five RBIs. Ryder Harrison and Crew Secrist accounted for Snow Canyon’s other two RBIs.  

Jake Andreas pitched four innings for Dixie to collect the win on the hill. He was tagged for seven runs off of six hits, walking three Warriors and striking out two.

Snow Canyon won Region 9 and Dixie finished second but those positions were reversed in the final RPI rankings.

“Just thinking about right now. Just worried about a best-of-three series we got coming up here in a week,” Ipson said. “It’s important for us just to kind of keep our head down and keep working.”

Cedar 11, Hurricane 4 | Hurricane 4, Cedar 3

At Cedar April 23, the Reds picked up their first region win of the season.

Cedar scored first when Jaxon Burgess singled in the bottom of the second, bringing in Colter Bunnell, who’d reached base on a fielding error.

The Reds added another run in the third when Gavin Mackert reached first on an error, scoring Caleb Paule. Paule was a courtesy runner for Jacob Boyer, who’d led off the inning with a single.

In the fourth inning, Cedar’s Ridge Leeder singled home two more runs, giving the Reds a 4-0 cushion.

Hurricane’s offense came to life in the top of the fifth, as the Tigers belted five hits and scored four runs to tie the game 4-4

Zane Staley capped off the rally with a two-run single, at which point Parker Johnson took the mound for Cedar, relieving starter Koden Lunt.

Although the first two batters Johnson faced hit a double and got hit by a pitch, Johnson bounced back to retire the next two batters on a strikeout and a fielder’s choice.

In the bottom of the fifth, it was Cedar’s turn to rally, as the Reds strung together six hits, with a  walk, sacrifice bunt and a hit-by-pitch mixed in. When the dust settled, the Reds owned a commanding seven run lead.

Johnson picked up the win on the mound, despite pitching only one inning.

Cedar finished the game with 14 hits as a team, including three apiece by Burgess and Krew Giles.

Meanwhile, Hurricane starter John Raddatz, who pitched the first five innings, took the loss for the Tigers.

At Hurricane April 25, the Tigers took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth when Staley scored on a wild pitch with the bases loaded and two outs.

Cedar managed to tie the score 3-3 in the top of the seventh when Giles singled, bringing home Caleb Paule.

Then, in the bottom of the seventh, the Tigers scored the game-winning run on a wild pitch with the bases loaded and two out. Pinch runner Emiliano Zapata crossed the plate safely, giving the Tigers their first and only region win.

The split meant that both Cedar and Hurricane finished 1-11 in the Region 9 standings.

– written by Jeff Richards

Final Region 9 baseball standings (region, overall):

1. Snow Canyon  11-1, 20-5
2. Dixie  10-2, 22-3
3. Desert Hills  8-4, 17-8
4. Crimson Cliffs  7-5, 14-8-1
5. Pine View  4-8, 14-11
6. Hurricane  1-11, 7-13
7. Cedar  1-11, 6-19

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