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Show Dixie Wins District I Little League Tourney E ' $ I .. t j i V, V : - s i4 " -Jy-r .r" ;" I'iVH,'' vv6spk; S - tv; ivc i - - v - ...... " - - . . . . . . . , i , . . i u . ..i : tirt WE WON! Members ot the Uixie Lime League tournament team gather at dugout after capturing the Utah District 1 Little League Championship. The club downed Tri-City, South Sevier, Cedar National and ceaar American 10 cupiure me cuvcicu uuc and advance to the Utah playoffs and the right to enter the Western Regional finals to be staged at San Bernardino, Calif. You couldn't follow a book any easier than the tournament tour-nament schedule of the 17-team 17-team District Little Legue held in Cedar City this past week.' It was a tournament of homcruns, 43 in all including six grand slam homeruns. Dixie won the championship, cham-pionship, their fourth in the past ten years over Cedar American by a score of 11-5. But the percentages were against Cedar American from the outset. Cedar defeated defending champions cham-pions West Zion in the tournament opener. Dixie defeated Tri-City. West Zion and Tri-City then advanced to play for the consolation title and Tri-City was the victor by a score of 13-3 in a game that also featured one of the six grand slam homeruns of the four day tournament. The odds after that victory had to favor Dixie. Score Early Dixie wasted no time in asserting themselves in the championship game as they touched Cedar American for six runs on six hits in the first inning and behind the six hit pitching of Jack Laub. Laub collected 14 strikeouts in the process. David McDonald got things started for Dixie with a single, that was followed by a walk and a double by Rick Johnson, a single by Tavish Snow, and a two run homer by Stan Gentry and singles by Rodney Yack and Laub. Before the dust had settled they had the six runs. For Cedar they went down in order in the bottom of the first, all via the strikeout and Dixie came back with three hits and two more runs in the top of the second to take a commanding 8-0 lead. Good Effort Cedar came back in the second with four runs on two hits. Darren Green got the inning started with a double. Robert Pearson walked, Charles Walker walked, and Darryl Little walked to force in Green. Jeff Whetman was hit by a pitch to push in another run and Roeer Hulet Robert Pearson went the distance on the mound. In the big second inning Roger Hulet started off with a double, with a homerun by Brett Staples and a double by Jeff Whetman. In the big fifth inning five hits were belted including doubles by Hulet, Cardon and Pearson. For West Zion homeruns were hit by Darren Earl and David Hirschi. Richfield was Cedar American's opponent and they had downed North Iron County 22-0 in the opener. Cedar with Roger Hulet on the mound came up with a 8-3 8-3 victory in one of the finest fielding games of the tournament. Neither team was charged with an error. Early Lead Richfield got off to a good start with two runs in the first inning on four hits. Cedar, however, came back and took the lead with three runs on four hits including singles by Green, Pearson, Chad Hunter and Hulet. The game was knotted at 3-all with a homerun by Steve Thompson of Richfield. In the fourth frame Cardon opened with a single and Brett Staples homered. In the fifth , Cedar American iced the victory with a walk to Cardon, a single by Staples and a homer by Green. In the semi-finals the Cedar American had to stage a come-from-behind effort to best Milford for the right to enter the championship cham-pionship game. Cedar American won 7-4. All of Milfords runs were accounted ac-counted for by homeruns. Nelson Gray belted a two run homer in the first and home runs by Eric Gonzales and Mark Yardley accounted ac-counted for the other runs. Trailing 4-2 going into the final inning Cedar American came up with a rally to push in five runs and capture the win. Hulet opened the inning with a home run. Cardon walked followed by a home run by Staples. Jeff Whetman Whet-man and Jeff Heap sub-squently sub-squently walked and came in to score. In the bottom half - a H - - " w M 1 Z'J . , 5 ' mm . " ' ; f TAKES CUT. Brad Hunter of the Cedar American League takes cut at the ball and belts out a single in the final inning of play in game against Dixie for District 1 Little League Championship. On deck, in foreground, is Roger Hulet top hitter for the Cedar club with three hits in four trips to the plate. Dixie won contest 11-5. tournament was handled. ; At the beginning of the tournament a memorial program was held in honor of Yorke Nelson who passed away July 12. Yorke had' served Little League for many years and the tourament was dedicated to his memory. A plaque and certificate of appreciation were presented to his wife and two daughters in the special recognition at the opening of the tournament action. who had three hits in four trips, singled to drive in two runs. Dixie came back with a run in the third inning and added a pair on two hits including a double by Laub in the fifth to push the score to 11-4. In the bottom of the sixth Hulet singled and came on to score on a passed ball for the final score of the game. Hulet started on the mound for Cedar American with Craig Cardon coming in relief in the second. Consolation Game Tri-City, after falling behind 3-0 against West Zion in the consolation battle came on strong to score 7 runs in the fourth inning and six in the sixth including a grand slam homer by Buddy Benson to capture an 11-3 win. West Zion showed their defensive spark that won them the championship last year in the early innings, but fell apart under the onslaught on-slaught of the Tri-City bats in the latter stages of the game. Rough Road Cedar American had a rough road to win their way into the championship battle. They opened the tournament with a slug fest against West Zion which they won 22-11. Big innings for Cedar American came in the second, when they scored six, and in the fifth, when they pushed in seven runs. of the frame Robert Pearson releived Darryl Little on the mound and retired Milford with three strikeouts. Dixie's advancement Dixie opened the tournament tour-nament with a 8-5 win over Tri-City. Laub was on the mound for that win. The Dixie crew came up with four runs on one hit in the third inning and added a pair of insurance runs in the top of the sixth to pick up the win. In the second round of play Dixie bested South Sevier by a score of 7-4. In the third round Cedar National and Dixie clashed with Dixie coming off with a 10-4 victory. Andy Larsen went all the way for the win for Dixie. Cedar National sent Shaun Hinton and LaMont Widick. Dixie got out in front in the contest with three runs including in-cluding a home run by David McDonald and a double by Larsen. Dixie added three runs on three hits in the second inning and two in the third with a home run by Stan Gentry. Cedar National had two runs in the first inning without benefit of a hit. They added a run in the fourth on a singles by Brando Petty and Mark Esplin. In the fifth Mark Esplin opened with a double and scored on a double by LaMont Widick, but it was too little too late. The loss eliminated Cedar National from tournament competition. Cedar National Shaun Hinton was on the mound for the Cedar National opening game against Enterprise as they picked up a 12-1 victory. Kevin Lundberg hurled in relief. The big stick of the game was LaMont Widick who belted a grand slam and a three run home run to account ac-count for seven runs in the contest. His grand slam came in the second and the 3-run 3-run homer was bleted in the fifth. In the second round of play Cedar National scored a come-from-behind victory over Lincoln . County. Brandon Petty, Shane Leigh and Mark Esplin all saw mound duty. Cedar National led 3-2 after two innings but Lincoln County scored three runs in the fourth to take a 5-3 lead. Cedar National had gone down in order in the third, fourth and fifth inning and trailing 5-3 going into the final half of the last inning it looked bad. Bruce Briggs got on with a catcher interference to start the inning. Shane Leigh singled to score Briggs and Kevin Lundberg doubled to push in the tieing and winning win-ning runs of the contest and give Cedar National the right to advance into the semi-finals. All in all a total of 23 games were played over the four-days of competition and Ralph Watson and his tournament committee are to be commended for the excellent way in which the |