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Smith, Gardner share Region 11 MVP award
From the 5/27/08 edition of The Leader
Greg Madson
Leader Publisher
The two were nearly inseparable on the diamond and now they share a postseason award. Bear River’s 1-2 punch of Danny Smith and Trevor Gardner were honored as region 11 co-MVPs last week. The two were team leaders in hitting and pitching and the league’s coaches felt it would be unfair to pick one over the other.
“We couldn’t separate the two,” said coach Clay Chournos.
Smith had five region wins and hit .621. Gardner had three saves and two wins and for fun, belted four home runs. He also led the team in RBIs.
“One was the better pitcher the other a better RBI guy, but if you take one off our team we were in trouble,” added Chournos.
In addition to the two MVPs, Bear River had five others earn first team recognition. Infielder Kasey Green and outfields Justin Capener, Blake Adams and Dallin Bunn joined Tyson Thompson on the first team.
“I was really excited to get all our outfielders and Kasey on there. Tyson was probably the best shortstop in the region. Our outfielders were excellent all year. They all hit over .360 and made great plays. Justin hit .419 from the nine spot and Dallin had the third most RBIs from the eight spot. Kasey only made one error in 10 games and hit over .360,” said Chournos.
Colton Fronk and Hunter Sedarholm received honorable mention status. “Colton played well at the plate all year. He was really playing out of position at third base for us. He set the table as leadoff hitter,” Chournos said. “Hunter was a great addition, we got a lot of production from him at the two spot.”
With a week to reflect on his team’s success, Chournos said he had no regrets nor did he lament about what could have been. The Bears won their second consecutive region title (10-0) and finished third at state.
“I felt good about where we ended up. If it all went perfect I’m not sure we would have ended up any higher. If we had played Juan Diego 10 times we probably would have won five,” he said. “Judge (state champion) was just so much better than anyone else. Not that we couldn’t have beat them, but it would have been tough.”
Graduating 10 seniors, including nine starters, is going to leave a huge hole to fill for the coaching staff. “We are going to miss those guys. This summer (the underclassmen) will have to learn fast. Hopefully they learned how to play the game and can get them physically ready,” Chournos said.
The catching position, which started out as a weakness this season, will be a strength next year with the return of Hagen Gardner and Eric Rawlinson. Both saw significant time behind the plate this year.
“I’m not sure what will happen with those two. They are so close; it will be tough to pick a starter. Hagen did a great job after Eric got hurt. Eric was solid when he was in there,” added Chournos, who will also turn to seniors Louis Lemus and Kyle Walker next year. “Louis and Kyle did a great job when they got time (on the field),” Chournos said.
When asked to describe this year’s team, Chournos said, “They just wanted to play. We went through some weird stuff, but they still showed up and played. Their egos didn’t get in the way of our success. We weren’t as athletic as other teams, be they just continued to work hard and put the time in (to be successful).”
With that in mind, there’s no reason not to expect the same next year.
Region 11 all-region Co-MVP - Trevor Gardner and Danny Smith. First Team all-region - Tyson Thompson, Blake Adams, Justin Capener, Dallin Bunn, Kasey Green. Second Team - Colton Fronk, Hunter Sedarholm. Honorable Mention - Eric Rawlinson, Hagen Gardner, Louis Lemus, Kyle Walker.
North wins 3-A slugfest at Lindquist Field
Standard-Examiner
Sunday, June 1, 2008
By CHRIS CHRISTENSEN
OGDEN -- It was the first game of the day and it happened to be the most exciting one of the three that were played at Lindquist Field Saturday.
The Utah Baseball All-Star Classic had three games from three classifications (3-A, 4-A, 5-A) and it was the 3-A that gave the fans the most bang for the buck. Rallying from a two-run deficit in the bottom of the ninth inning, the North All-Stars, led by the likes of Bear River's Trevor Gardner and Judge's Joe Pond, came away with a thrilling 14-13 victory over the South All-Stars.
Many local players saw playing time during the game, including Gardner, Tyson Thompson and Danny Smith from Bear River, Sean Holley from Ogden, Vincent Jackson from Ben Lomond and Chase Markham from Morgan. However, it was the trio of Bear River players that had a major say in the outcome.
Gardner was named the 2nd runner-up in the MVP voting by collecting four hits and four RBIs in the win. Pond picked up the win on the mound by throwing two innings of relief and knocking in the game-winning RBIs in the bottom of the ninth.
The South all-stars were impressive, jumping out to an early 10-3 lead on the North squad, highlighted by a seven-run fourth inning where they only collected two hits. But Gardner and Thompson got things rolling offensively and Smith was excellent on the mound for two innings.
The North finally took the lead in the seventh inning, highlighted by a bases-clearing triple from Gardner. The South all-stars tied the game and then took the lead in the top of the ninth, scoring two runs to seemingly end the game.
Gardner then had an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to get one of the runs back before Pond laced a single into right-center to score runners from second and third to end the game. Most of the local players had at least one hit with Gardner being the most productive.
In the 4-A game, local products Colton Land and Preston Mooney each had a single for the North squad, but the South's Ryan Thomas hit a three-run home run while Mountain View's Mark Garrett and Dixie's Steve Nelson had solo home runs to push the South team past the North, 10-1.
The North team trailed 2-1 in the third inning, but the South scored two runs in the fourth inning and four more in the sixth, highlighted by the shot from Thomas to take a commanding 9-1 lead.
Box Elder also had a couple of local players that played in the game with the best effort coming from Bobby King, who pitched two shutout innings before giving up a couple in the sixth inning. Justin Crosbie also made a couple of outstanding defensive plays from his shortstop position in the loss.
A recap of the late 5-A game will appear on Monday.
Comments
By: "Correction" @ 06/01/2008, 1:44 AM
I believe it was Tyson Moll that hit the two runs in to win the game in the 3A game, not Pond.
By: "Correction 2" @ 06/01/2008, 11:01 AM
Yes, it was Tyson Moll, not Pond, Moll's team mate from Judge, who laced a 3-2, 2 out pitch in the bottom of the ninth to right center that scored the 2 winning runs for the North.
By: "yankee-nut1" @ 06/01/08, 12:00 PM
Yes, you are both right but it was "The Three (Bear River) Bears" who did the most damage and rallied the 3A North Team throughout the game (especially late in the game when it really mattered, after they finally "woke up" after being up all night celebrating their graduation) and one of them should have been the MVP. Any of the 3 would have been fine and Gardner may have been the most deserving, but it definitely should not have been a player from the losing "Big-Bad" South Team!
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