Bulldogs beat Rockwell, Enterprise in playoffs
Bob Bahlmann
Staff writer
5-11-2017
GUNNISON—The number one ranked Gunnison baseball team showed they can dominate both offensively and defensively with a pair of important wins last Saturday.
In their opening game of state tournament playoffs, the Bulldogs scored 25 runs on 15 hits to beat Rockwell Academy 25-7. The second game of the day was against Enterprise, a team that earlier beat Manti 12-1. The Bulldogs held the Wolves scoreless for a 2-0 win.
Against Rockwell, the Bulldogs blew the game open in the second inning with 14 runs and added eight more in the third. With a commanding lead, coach Jared Anderson went to his dugout, giving his younger players a chance to participate in a playoff game. Rockwell was able to score in the fourth and fifth innings, but never threatened the Bulldogs.
Braxton Sylvester, Drew Hill, Kyle Peterson, Mike Hansen and Parx Bartholomew all had doubles in the game.
“It was a game where the bats came alive,” Anderson said. “Each Gunnison player was able to get in the game and contribute.”
Game two against Enterprise was a whole different story. The Wolves are the third place team in a very tough 2A South region and were coming off an impressive win over Manti.
In this game, it was the Bulldog defense that sealed the win. Against a good hitting team, Bulldog pitcher, Jayden Mayne, with the help of his fielders, held Enterprise to only two hits in the game. This is the only game all year in which the Wolves have been shut out.
Drew Hill had the only extra base hit in the game, a double.
“Their bats were hot and we had to find a way of slowing them down,” Anderson said. “That task was taken by senior Jaden Mayne. He pitched a gem, limiting them to two hits with a complete shutout.”
Gunnison is one of only four teams to make it through the first day of post-season play without a loss. The Bulldogs will now travel to Salt Lake Community College to take on Beaver. The game is scheduled for today at 1:30 p.m.
Before the Bulldogs meet Beaver, the other two teams in the no-loss bracket, Grand and Kanab, will play at 11 a.m., with the winners of these two games taking the field to play on Friday at 4 p.m. The losers drop into the one-loss bracket and will need to fight through that group of teams for a chance at the championship.
Beaver will be a challenging opponent for the Bulldogs. They are 14-5 on the year compared to the Bulldogs who are 21-3. These two teams met earlier this year in Gunnison where the Bulldogs used a three-run first inning to win the game 5-1. Since that time, the Beavers have finished the year with a 12-2 record, their only losses to region foe Kanab.
