Dixie Legion baseball holds off Upper Valley to win St. George Classic

Danny Ipson’s squad didn’t blink when they lost 5-4 to the Utah Rangers on Wednesday on the opening night of the St. George Classic.

Nor did they blink when they saw a 10-2 lead cut down to 10-7 in the championship game on Saturday night, coming away with an 11-7 win over Upper Valley (ID) at Utah Tech University.

“We’ve got our guys here and we’re trying to mix and match and play them in positions they haven’t played a lot and so some of that was what we had on Wednesday-maybe guys not being in a comfortable position,” said Ipson after Saturday’s game.

Dixie’s offense stormed out to a 4-0 lead at the end of the first inning, fueled by RBI singles from Cooper Bartholomew and Luis Acuna.

A five-run fourth inning pushed the lead up to 10-2.

Boston Vest singled home Ridge Erickson to start the rally.

Acuna knocked in two more with a two-run single.

Acuna, a 2021 Dixie grad, went 2/4 and reached in all four of his at-bats

“Everybody’s come out and gave a good effort this week and is just trying to improve,” said Ipson. “As the week went along, there was a lot of things that we saw, a lot of improvements with what we’re trying to do. And really at this point in the year, that’s all we’re trying to do, is to give some guys some chances and some opportunities.”

Upper Valley responded with five runs, forcing Ipson to pull starter Trace Franco after 4.1 innings.

Three walks by Dixie pitching aided to the rally for Upper Valley.

“It was just a matter for us to throw strikes. We feel comfortable enough with our defense and how we play that we’ll be able to make the plays. There’s not a lot we can do if we’re putting guys on base. We just talked about throwing strikes and being able to come out and be successful.”

Dixie added an insurance run in the top of the sixth to pad the lead on a Braxton Yates single to score Erickson.

Sean Ellertson is a sports reporter for the St. George Spectrum & Daily News. To continue to support his work, please subscribe to The Spectrum. Follow Sean on Twitter @SeanEllertson.