Stallions suffer sweep against Bear River

The Stansbury baseball team’s pursuit of another Region 11 title just got a whole lot tougher.
Two days after Bear River managed to squeak out a 2-1 win over the Stallions in a pitcher’s duel, the Bears rolled to an 11-2 win Friday at Stansbury High School to gain the upper hand in the region championship race.
The Stallions (5-7, 2-2 Region 11) didn’t do themselves any favors early in Friday’s contest. After allowing a leadoff single to Rusty Newman in the top of the first, Stansbury pitcher Bubba Peterson got Hayden Smoot to ground out and struck out Hunter Porritt. It appeared he would get out of the inning unscathed when Triston Merritt hit a fly ball to right field, but miscommunication caused the ball to drop in and Newman was able to score an unearned run. Peterson then struck out Nate Dahle to end the inning.
“Bear River’s a tough team, and when you make errors, they’re going to capitalize [on] them,” Stallions coach Ray Clinton said. “They had a few pop-ups that dropped, and they didn’t hit the ball real hard early on. We have to catch those fly balls that should be outs, and when you don’t big things happen.”
The Bears (7-3, 4-0) posted another two-out rally in the second inning, with Kelton Christensen’s base hit and Wyatt Sorensen’s walk setting the stage for Newman’s two-run single.
Bear River extended its lead to 6-0 in the top of the third. Porritt led off the inning with a single and eventually scored on a wild pitch. Dahle hit a one-out single and came home on a basehit by Cole Fronk, who scored on a two-out triple to center by Christensen.
Peterson’s day on the mound came to an end in the top of the fourth after he gave up a one-out single to Porritt and hit Merritt with a pitch. Jacob Colovich took over, giving up a single to Dahle that loaded the bases. He got Fronk to hit a grounder to third baseman Gage Manzione, who fired the ball to catcher Matt McIntyre to force Porritt out at home. However, Hyatt Gibbs drew a bases-loaded walk to score Merritt, and Christensen hit a single that scored Dahle and Fronk for a 9-0 lead.
Meanwhile, the Stallions couldn’t get anything going offensively against Dahle, who didn’t allow a hit and walked two batters through the first four innings. The Stallions had only one runner reach second base during the first five innings.
“In the middle of the game, I told them they just didn’t want it bad enough,” Clinton said. “I think that’s what it boiled down to.”
Colovich kept the game from being shortened by the mercy rule, getting Dahle to ground out with two runners on and two out in the fifth. The Bears loaded the bases against Colovich in the sixth before Smoot ended the inning with a flyout to left.
Stansbury had a chance to get on the board in the bottom of the sixth with Gavin Skogg, Mitch McIntyre and Clay Matthews all knocking base hits with one out to load the bases for the heart of the Stallions’ order, but Manzione popped out to second and cleanup hitter Kyle Lindsley popped out to the catcher to end the inning.
Two more hits and an error allowed the Bears to score twice more in the top of the seventh. Stansbury broke up Dahle’s shutout bid in the bottom of the inning as Colovich and Peterson drew back-to-back walks, and pinch-runners Hunter Myers and Kobee Harris scored when the Bears’ infield mishandled Skogg’s would-be game-ending groundout.
Dahle allowed no earned runs in a complete-game four-hitter. He struck out two and walked four. Peterson took the loss, allowing seven runs — six earned — on 10 hits with one walk and two strikeouts in 3.1 innings. Colovich allowed four runs on seven hits with two strikeouts and three walks in 3.2 innings of relief.
The Stallions now will turn their focus to Grantsville. Stansbury travels to face the Cowboys on Wednesday before wrapping up the two-game set Friday at home. Wednesday’s game will feature a matchup between aces Manzione and Wyatt Barrus on the mound.
“We beat [Barrus] last year, so we’ve got some confidence going up against him,” Clinton said. “It will be another pitcher’s duel that first game. I’m sure it’s going to be low-scoring, and it’s going to come down to the team that capitalizes on those plays you need on offense to win the game. It’ll be fun.”
dvaughan@tooeletranscript.com