DELTA—After seeing Gunnison baseball outside the Deseret News 2A Top 5, Bulldogs’ head coach Max Sanders called preseason rankings “as much a curse as a projection of success.”
Nevertheless, those rankings may be accurate in showing that the Bulldogs have more work to do. Gunnison fell in their first two games at the Delta Invitational, losing to the host, Delta, 2-1, before getting romped by No. 2 Parowan, 12-0, last Friday. Luckily, the Bulldogs managed to right the ship last Saturday with wins over Duchesne, 10-6, and Grand County, 7-5.
After getting stomped by Parowan, the Bulldogs looked fairly hapless against Duchesne and were behind, 5-1, going into the bottom of the sixth inning. That’s when it finally came together for Sanders’ squad, and they peeled off nine runs in a single inning to pull ahead and claim the win.
“In the last two games, we started swinging the bat, got our timing down and began putting pressure on the defense,” Sanders said. “The first two games were a bit of a sign that we hadn’t seen live pitching for awhile, and then we were able to show what our offense is capable of once we felt more comfortable in the box.”
The Bulldogs stand at 2-2 overall after their showing in the Invitational. Their loss against Delta marked the first time that Gunnison lost their season opener since 2014.
After a week of rest, the Bulldogs will have another full weekend coming up as they head to Kanab for the Chuckwagon Classic, where they will take on Morgan and Judge Memorial on Friday, followed by contests against Summit Academy and the host team, Kanab, on Saturday. They’ll then return home for their first home game next Tuesday against South Sevier.