Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 31, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
ST. GEORGE – Dayton Dempsey spoke softly after Dixie’s 17-2 win against Canyon View Friday night at Flyer Field. That’s OK, he had already let his big stick do the talking.
Dempsey, the Dixie center fielder and No. 2 hitter, homered in his first at-bat and added two separate two-run singles as the Flyers mercy-ruled the Falcons in the final tuneup for the two teams before region play begins.
“I guess I had a pretty good day,” Dempsey said. “I like to swing at pitches early in the count. I just come to the plate looking for strikes and then hit the ball hard. I like being aggressive and jumping all over them.”
Dempsey finished the day 3 for 3 with six RBIs and two runs scored. The only at-bat he didn’t get a hit is when he got hit by a Canyon View pitch. The homer in the first inning was to straightaway center field and tied the game at 2-2 after the Falcons had jumped out to the early lead.
“Dayton’s a key player for us, hitting second in that lineup,” Dixie coach Danny Ipson said. “He’s very athletic and he creates opportunities for us to do some things offensively. Add some power to that that he’s added in the last game or two and that really adds to what he can do for us in that two-hole. He put that homer right between the uprights.”
The long ball went between two poles that used to hold the hitter’s eye in center field.
Canyon View led the game 2-0 early, with Colton Gochis doubling home a run and another coming home on a double play ground out with the bases loaded. But Dixie starter Stockton Sorden settled down after that, allowing just one more hit after the two in the first inning.
And it helped that the Flyers took off in the bottom of the first. Hobbs Nyberg led off and beat out an infield hit ahead of Dempsey’s homer. With one out, Kyler Yates doubled home Tyson Fisher to give Dixie a 3-2 lead. The Flyers scored five more times in the inning, with Kaleb Leavitt delivering the big blow with a three-run double down the left field line. After one inning, Dixie led 8-2.
The Flyers made it 11-2 in the bottom of the third as Dempsey got his third and fourth RBIs on a single to left field. Dixie added six more in the fourth, Dempsey adding his fifth and sixth RBIs on a single right over second base.
Leavitt and Nyberg had two hits each with Leavitt picking up those three RBIs and Nyberg scoring three times. Every Dixie starter scored at least one run in the game and Dixie finished with 12 hits.
“I can’t wait to see what this lineup does in region,” Sorden said. “We’re stacked from one through nine and we’ve got a deep bench, too.”
The game ended via the 10-run mercy rule after Yates came on in the fifth and retired three of the four Canyon View batters he faced.
Dixie, 11-1, has scored 10 runs or more in seven of its 12 games and has scored at least six runs in all 12 contests. The Flyers are averaging 11.0 runs per game this season. Dixie starts region play next Tuesday with a home game against Desert Hills at 7 p.m. The two will meet again next Friday at Thunder Field.
Canyon View, 5-7, begins Region 12 play at 3 p.m. Tuesday with a doubleheader vs. Richfield.
One scheduling note: The Cedar-Snow Canyon series locations have been switched for next week. Tuesday’s meeting will be at Warrior Field and Friday’s contest will take place in Cedar City.
Next week’s Region 9 opening series:
Dixie-Desert Hills (Tuesday @ Dixie, Friday at DH)
Cedar-Snow Canyon (Tuesday @ SC, Friday at Cedar)
Hurricane-Pine View (Tuesday at PV, Friday at Hurricane)
Canyon View's Joey Lambeth (2), Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 31, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Canyon View's Joey Lambeth (2), Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 31, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Dixie's Hobbs Nyberg (9), Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 31, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Dixie's Hobbs Nyberg (9) and Canyon View's Cadyn Clark (4), Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 31, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Dixie's Kayler Yates (14), Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 31, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Dixie’s Stockton Sorden (11), Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 31, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Canyon View's Trace Harden (10), Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 31, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Canyon View's Josh Macinnis (20), Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 31, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Canyon View's Cadyn Clark (4), Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 31, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Dixie's Dayton Dempsey (3) watches the ball sail over the fence for a first inning home run, Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 31, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Dixie's Tyson Fisher (18), Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 31, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Dixie's Kayler Yates (14), Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 31, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Dixie's Tyson Fisher (18) and Dayton Dempsey (3), Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 31, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Dixie's Kayler Yates (14), Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 31, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Canyon View's Joey Lambeth (2), Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 31, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Dixie's Hobbs Nyberg (9) and Canyon View's Joey Lambeth (2), Dixie vs. Canyon View, Baseball, St. George, Utah, Mar. 31, 2017, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2017, 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.