The Red Devil baseball team earned three decisive victories this week: an 11-1 victory at home versus San Juan on Tuesday, April 1 and 32-1 and 32-0 victories over Wasatch Academy in a road doubleheader on Friday, April 4.
Junior Tanner White led the Red Devils’ torrid hitting attack with two doubles in each game of the week. The Red Devils collected 12 hits against San Juan and 34 and 31 hits against Wasatch Academy.
Grand assistant baseball coach Ron Dolphin gave credit to the winless Wasatch Academy baseball team for trying hard all the way through both games.
“They’ve had other games this year where they’ve quit after two or three innings,” he said. “Their coach was very appreciative that our kids wanted to play the whole five innings.”
Dolphin said the younger Red Devil players got extended playing time as the coaching staff removed the varsity players halfway through each game.
“It’s a difficult situation,” Dolphin said. “You don’t want to embarrass teams, but you don’t want to get out on purpose, either.”
Joining White on the stat sheet in game one versus the Tigers were senior Cameron Taylor, who hit two doubles and a triple, and seniors Koi Cook and Kiel Schraft and junior Ronnie Dolphin, who each hit doubles. In game two, senior Adam Jenkinson hit a triple, Cook had two doubles, and junior Kyler Nelson, sophomore Will Rhodes and freshman Tobin Wainer hit doubles.
White leads all of 2A with 10 doubles, followed by Taylor, who has seven.
Games against rival San Juan are traditionally much closer than the 11-1 outcome from Tuesday, but the Broncos are in something of a rebuilding year after losing seven seniors last year, Ron Dolphin said.
“It was a rivalry game and we were excited to play and ready to play,” he said. Things went really well for us.”
Ron Dolphin said for the Red Devils to continue winning, they have to continue to avoid having “that one bad inning” defensively.
“Emery is the top dog in 2A right now as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “It’s going to be a good test; it’s good to have ’em at home. Hopefully we’ll avoid that bad inning. If we do, it will be a much different game than earlier in the season at their place, where they beat us 12-0.”
The Emery game was scheduled to take place on Tuesday, April 8.
The Red Devils were originally scheduled to play a doubleheader at South Sevier on Friday, April 11, but it has been moved to Thursday, April 10 to ease travel difficulties for the school district because of Spring Break and so many trips going out, Ron Dolphin said.
The Red Devils are scheduled to play in Farmington, N.M., on Monday, April 14 and Wednesday, April 16. They’re trying to find an opponent for Tuesday, April 15.
“We’re three varsity games short right now,” Ron Dolphin said. “Without the two games against Altamont (which were cancelled when the Longhorns dropped their baseball program) and the one next Tuesday, we don’t even have a full varsity schedule.”
Junior Tanner White becoming a doubling machine
Â
“Emery is the top dog in 2A right now as far as I’m concerned. It’s going to be a good test; it’s good to have ’em at home. Hopefully we’ll avoid that bad inning. If we do, it will be a much different game than earlier in the season at their place, where they beat us 12-0.”
