Larry Jewell

Stalker Stadium has stayed in effect for the Mesa State football team, but now for baseball has been named after a man who has been the heart and soul of the JUCO in recent years, Sam Suplezio, still the director of the Junior college, the World Series program and the committee here. Dixie College versus St. Louis Merrimack. This is the fifth and final first round game and already there have been two teams who have been eliminated from this tournament. Earlier in the day we had two teams who bowed out in elimination games. We'll get to all of that a little bit later, but let me give you a little background. The St. Louis Merrimack came into this ball game as the only ball club who has not ended up with either ranking or at least votes in the final rankings. And for Dixie College, a team that has received votes this year but has never really been ranked, the only team from the region who has been ranked has been Ricks College. Ricks finishing well, was ranked 20th at one time or another this year. But this is a case of two underdog teams on what has become one of the two premier games for fans to show up and watch this game tonight. And of course the Memorial Day Monday night game draws more fans than anyone else any of the other games in this Junior College World Series. A little background on the park. The park has been expanded. It had been expanded when we got here in 1989 with the Dixie College baseball team. Back then, my first trip to the juco, they added some stands down the third baseline and had paved the area under the stands to keep the dust down. Roving herds of junior high school teenagers use this as the hangout. This is the place to be during the week of juco. Now one other change has taken place. There's been more stands added to the left field side and earlier this year there was alright turf but some problems with it. Two weeks after the Mesa State season ended two weeks ago, I should say there was a huge effort to get new turf in and completed. So this field was entirely changed. The turf taken out, it was lowered three feet. New turf, new sod was brought in on top of new dirt. So the field was lowered 3ft, then brazed back up 3ft and brand new turf with that. The turf is awfully heavy. It has been a little bit slow in the outfield, but on the infield it has been beautiful. And if you look at the park you would never know that this is Turf that's only two weeks old and just up for the juco. We talked with coach Todd Whaley of St. Louis Merrimack and also with coach Gordon Jolly prior to this game. Let's be back with coach Todd Whaley after this timeout with a fake for the brand new generation. For convenience, you can count on working towards the future. We're growing strong. Sun Capital Bank. We're number one. Sun Capital Bank. We're growing strong. Sun Capital Bank. Sun comes shining through. Gary Bybee at Allstead Insurance wants to congratulate the Dixie College Rebels on their appearance in the Junior College World Series. Good luck and thanks for a great season. For all your insurance needs, see Gary Bybee at 297 West Hilton Drive in St. George or call 628-8778. All State Insurance Company in southern Utah. This is the Sports Leader, KSGI AM&FM St. George Merrimack Head baseball coach Todd Whaley and coach. This has been a little while since Merrimack has been back here, but what a tradition. Yes. It's been nine years since we've been back here and we've had a pretty good stretch at it. It's our 10th trip, so I feel a program that's pretty strong for a program, I think that's second or third amongst any junior college. So the program's strong and let's hope it continues that way. You're one of the rare people you've been here both as a player, now as a coach. Yes, I was lucky in 1986 with the last team we got out here and it's just a thrill now. They got some new things around here, new stadium parts to it and upgrades to the field. It's just a beautiful thing. I've got to ask you, what was the feeling when you first came here as a player? Just in awe, you know, you're just in awe. Getting treated like a big leaguer, you know, kids wanting you autograph, trying to take your hat. Can you give me this, give me that, give me this. And, you know, you really don't know how to act for a couple days and then, you know, you catch on and you kind of play the role. Now coming back as a coach, the feeling's much different. The feeling's pretty much the same. It's, you know, you only get here so many times, so you're just in awe. It's kind of, kind of neat to be back here and, you know, enjoy the same thing. What about your ball club this year? Good record, but you came in unranked without votes. That all goes back to our, I guess our region or our district. It's a team in our Conference, the guy does the voting and at the times of all the votes, you know, they had beaten us and we had already beaten them in the regional play. So it's, you know, it doesn't matter. It's not. It doesn't matter. You're here, so you got to be doing something right. It's a double edged sword, that rankings thing. If you got them, that's great. If you don't, you know, you say, hey, it's no good anyway because we don't have the opportunity to vote for ourselves or, you know, the guy that's doing the voting, you know, he happened to be us three out of four, but we beat him in the tournament. So what counts more, beating you in the regular season or beating you in the tournament? One of the things you were doing right was pitching this year. Yes, we've got some strong pitching at big times. So it's been a big part of our club is having pitchers throw strikes. And that's our main thing. Try not to walk people. That gets you in trouble all the time. They hit it, you got a chance. So that's kind of what we go by. Let's throw strikes. If they don't swing, we'll strike them out. If they swing, hit it, we got a chance. Starting pitcher tonight has some of the best stats in the journey. Yeah, he's a nice pitcher and let's hope he can do the same thing that he's been doing all year long. What will be the key tonight for St. Louis Merrimack to get the victory, but pitching and defense, that's going to have to be the key. With the way the wind's blowing, blowing in today, all of a sudden, you know, for this last couple games, I guess now you know, so pitching and defense and you know, you got to play under any condition and you know, we're not at, we're not surprised by the wind because it blows in at our park quite a bit. So pitching and defense will be the big key. Coach Todd Whaley, congratulations on a great year and best of luck today. Thank you. There you've heard from the St. Louis Merrimack head coach Todd Whaley. We'll be back with coach Gordon Jolly after this timeout. For all your lighting needs and accessories, Wilkinson's House of Lighting. At Wilkinson, big screen TVs seem to be the rage. I bought one even though I'm opposed to tv. I guess I'm one of those people who can't pass up a good buy. We pass savings from fantastic buys onto the customer. Wilkinson's a unique place to shop. Wilkinson's a unique place to shop. The new Hampton Inn at 53 North River Road in St. George congratulates the Dixie College Rebels baseball team on their participation in the Junior College World Series. St. George's newest hotel features comfortable rooms and suites, free local phone calls, indoor pool, Jacuzzi, two premium TV channels and a deluxe breakfast buffet served each morning. Mention this ad and receive 20% off regular rates. When you need accommodations in St. George for yourself or visitors, come and enjoy the Hampton Inn. I'm a Dixie College head baseball coach, Gordon Jolly. And coach, you're back here again for a second time. What's the feeling now that you've stepped on this field? How has it changed from that first? I don't know, Larry. It's just exciting to be here. There's the 10 best junior college teams in the country, and we're one of that group. And so it's just a thrilling experience. We'll play before 10,000 people here tonight. And, you know, it's just great to represent Dixie College, the state of Utah, and it's just a super feeling. I had been told by many of the tournament officials the largest crowd this and Monday nights is the largest crowd through the tournament. That's great for us. You know, just hopefully we can perform. There's many scouts pro in college, and I like our draw, and let's just hope that we do the job we can do. You had a cheering section when you walked in? Yeah, yeah. I hope. I hope it keeps up. I hope they don't start bulls. Let's talk about this field. It's going to be a little cooler tonight. It's a brand new field. In terms of turf on an old field, how's that going to affect you? I don't know. We practiced here a little bit, but basically, I don't know. I'm sure it's all first class. It's all first class. Everything's first class here, so I'm sure it'll be fine. Seems like the outfield's real slow from their previous games, and it seems like the infield turf is a little bit slow, but we'll make some adjustments and I think we'll be okay tonight. Your ball club, have they been excited about this all day? Has there been much murmuring that you've heard? Oh, yeah, it's thrilling to everybody. It's just a great. You know, these guys will remember this. I'll remember it. And it's just a great opportunity for these kids to be here. And I think we've got a lot of people from St. George, a lot of parents here, and this is just what baseball, you know, be rewarded for having a successful season. And we're still right in the middle of it. This is one hot ball club. You're seven and two in postseason play. That's not bad. That's not bad. And we think the competition's been excellent, so we just hope we can continue that on. As you know, you were here and you saw some of the games previous and there's some excellent teams here, but we think we're a good team, too. So, you know, that's one thing I tell my kids. You know, never underestimate your opponent, but never underestimate yourself. And, you know, we're going to have some pregame jitters, but we just got to get those out. And if we make an error, just forget about it and go on because I think we do have a pretty good ball club. Sounds like you're more confident this time around, coming into this tournament. Yes and no. You know, we were one and two and it's not too much of a confident builder, but I do like our pitching staff, and if we can get by a game or two, I think with our pitching staff, we can stay around and play a little bit. So, you know, and that's what we'd like to do. You know much about your opponent? Not much. Their pitcher is supposed to be spectacular and they've got three or four hitters that are.375 around that area. But, you know, I don't know much. I'm just hoping that, you know, their hitter or their pitcher that's 11 and one doesn't overpower us. There's been a lot of home runs hit yesterday. Today the wind's blowing in. Not as many in that second game. No. And. And, you know, I kind of wish it was blowing out a little bit because, you know, I like our power in this game and. But whatever happens, you know, we'll deal with it. That's been one of the pleasant bonuses this year for you as a power. Oh, yeah. Brad Parker and Kel shepherd have definitely been a plus. And Skeeter Ellison, you know, hits the double and the triple and yeah, we've had a little bit of a surprise. I didn't expect that much, but. And we should get some quite a few extra. Well, hopefully we'll get some extra base hits in this ball game. Any changes? No changes in lineup. You know, just hopefully Jeff Garf continues to throw like he has the last Two months, you know, last eight or seven or eight weeks. And if he does that, I think we have an excellent chance. Everybody healthy coming in? I know Skeeter had a little bit of full muscle problem, but that didn't show up in the district tournament. I think we're all right. Craig Smith jammed his toe, but that's been an ongoing thing for two or three weeks. But I don't think it's anything real serious. Coach Gordon Jolly, congratulations on a successful year and best of luck tonight. Well, thanks, Larry. It's thrilling just to be here and we appreciate the people in St. George listening to ball games, supporting us at Bruce Hurst Field. And, you know, we just hope we can represent Dixie College in the city of St. George. Well, there you've heard from the two coaches, that's Coach Gordon Jolly. And before you get too panicked, he was not referring to the pitcher for Utah Valley, Greg Smith. It was a Freudian slip, if you will. Craig Peterson, who is leadoff hitter and center fielder, has been suffering a little bit with a jam toe. Let's take this time out. We'll be back with the starting lineup, St. Louis Merrimack warriors and the Dixie College Rebels after this timeout. You know a winning team when you see one, so why not see the award winning lineup of 1995 GMC trucks at your local Color Country GMC dealers. Your selection of GMC trucks is better than ever. And they're all specially priced to guarantee you excellent values on the GMC been wanting, like the new GMC Sierras, the Suburbans, the Jimmies and the Yukons. You'll score savings at your local color country gmc, so visit Newby Auto center in Richfield, Tri State GMC in Cedar City and Newby GMC in St. George. Traditions are important. The tradition at Dixie College, the tradition of St. George, the tradition of good people all make our community what it is. Today at MacArthur Jewelers in St. George, we have the tradition of 45 years in business. The tradition of service to our customer, the tradition of good product at a fair market price. Over the years, we've grown into two stores. Our downtown store where we've always been in business, and the new mall store to better serve all our customers. Remember our name. Remember MacArthur Jewelers. A tradition in St. George. Back at Supplicio park where we're about ready to have the introduction of the starting lineup. Let's begin with the St. Louis Merrimack Warriors. As we mentioned, this is their 10th visit. Last time was in 1986 and Dixie is now on their second visit since that time and they won the national championship back in 1971. Let's lead off. Let's give you the starting lineup. There's also an introduction of introduction of the of a lot of the officials, the coaches and the players are being introduced. But let's give you the starting lineup for the Warriors. Leading off and playing left field is Mike Brown. Mike Brown is the 61200 pound freshman from St. Louis. Batting second, Steve Stalaszynski who is 59 freshman. He is playing second base. Batting second, batting third, the right fielder Mark Pier. Pier of freshman. Batting fourth, the shortstop Matt Schaffa. Schuffa, spelled C I U F F A is his sophomore. The veterans player and the leading hitter average wise on the team. Batting fifth is the catcher and Jason Sheppard shepherd, the leading home run hitter this year at sophomore. Batting six, the first baseman Darren Sissel spelled with his C C I S S E L L and batting seven, the designated hitter, Tim May. May a dh, also a catcher, Mark Hannock is batting eighth and playing third base. And the number nine hitter is Chad Thorpe. The center fielder pitching today is Dave Sipoba. Sibota, I should say C I B O D a Dave Sipota. A 101 record. He's a sophomore and no question he's the leader on the team. An earned run average down to 1.86 now for Dixie. Leading off and playing center field is Craig Peterson, a freshman out of Viewmont High School. Batting second, the only returning starter from last year, Scott Buggy Sudbury. The third baseman. Batting third, right fielder Brad Parker, a sophomore transfer from the University of Utah. Batting fourth, a cleanup hitter, KL Sheppard, a left handed hitting first baseman from Utah Valley. Batting fifth, the designated hitter, Wyatt Cloward. Freshman. Batting six, the freshman shortstop Troy Tuttle. Batting seventh, freshman left fielder Skeeter Ellison. Batting eight, the sophomore catcher Brad Thorne. And batting ninth is freshman second baseman Justin Garrett and today's starting pitcher, Jeff Garf. Garf comes into this ball game as the number one team for for Dixie with a 2.96 season long earned run average and a 9 and 4 record. Although he does not have the most wins on the in the on the team he's also but he has been the leading pitcher strikeout wise until Lance Lambert passed him recently but has had the best earned run average. Two shutouts which equals the two that's picked up by the rest of the staff and more complete games than anyone. 11 complete games on the year. Let's take this time out. There is the introduction of the coaches for the region championships and also for the tournament. I should say the tournament committee who has helped put this thing together. We'll be back. And after this, time out and recap what has already taken place in this Junior College World Series. Back after this. Ah, the luxuries of the modern world. Instant soup, instant breakfast, instant cash and now even instant financing. 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A line drive might still get out of here right field, but if you get it up into the air, it's going to be held up. It may be helped a little bit if you hit it towards left field and it might hook it towards the line a little bit. So there's A possibility of having some, some advantage that way. But right now, the flag raised by scout troop at center field while that was taking place, blowing straight in from center field. Now let's take a look at what's taken place so far in this tournament we mentioned. These are the final 10 teams of the Junior College Division 1 Series. Middle Georgia, former national champ. In fact, several times a former national champ came in and in game number one ended up getting dumped by Allegheny College. Allegheny coming out of the east and a lot of people have been suspect out of the east figuring that those, those records are inflated because of a lack of competition. But no case this time, Allegheny dumping Middle Georgia by a 6 to 5 margin. Last yesterday, the huge, huge ball game as Odessa needed a full 10 innings to defeat Indian Hill 1615 in what proved to be a slug season. Odessa moving into the championship bracket with Allegheny. Then in the third game yesterday, Volunteer State, a team that is one of the surprise teams coming in. Volunteer State, who had the biggest margin of victory in their district championship, defeated Triton of Illinois by a 10 to 4 margin. And then in the late game, the team that a lot of the Dixie kids feel is the team to beat is Indian river defeated seminole by an 11 to 5 margin. Seminole is making its 10th appearance in the juco but had not won a ball game in their five previous years. Actually in their four previous years and last night made it five in a row that they had not won a ball game. Well, in the elimination games earlier today, Middle Georgia defeated Indian hills by a 15 to 5 margin. And so Indian Hills out of Iowa is gone. Dixie will not have to worry about them that one. Let me double check and see how the innings went. They went a full nine innings. Fifteen to five was the final score. And Seminole pulled out a nine to four victory over Triton. They jumped out early on Triton and then held off Triton. So Triton, Illinois, the team that produced Kirby, Packet, Lands Johnson and others, is out of this tournament. In fact, the team that finished second in each of the last two years. Let's take this well, we're about ready to get underway. Let's continue on now. We're ready with the first batter as Craig Pieder. Peterson. Craig Peterson will be at the plate. Let's take a look at the lineup defensively for St. Louis Meramec. On the mound is Dave Sabota. Behind the plate is Jason Shepard. Over at first base is Darren Sissel. The second baseman is Steve Stalozinski. The shortstop Mike Schaffer and the third baseman is Mark Hanick, middle of the outfield, left to right is Mike Brown in left. The center fielder is Chad Thorpe and the right fielder is Mark Fear. And as we mentioned, Sabota on the mound. Sabota, outstanding pitcher, comes into this tournament with a 101 record. He has started 12 games, he has finished 10 of them and has lost but one. So that tells you the type of record this young man has. Sabota, 1.86 earned run average coming in a correction, 1.56 better than I thought. Craig Peterson, the only man, is really injured for Dixie with his sore foot to lead things off. Left handed hitting center fielder. First pitch, low ball one. So Sabota starting, starts things off with a pitch inside. Sabota good easy motion into the wind, up right hander, comes to the plate, chopped at the plate, fouled, fouled once, fouled twice. It fouled down into the turf and as it came back up, hit the follow through of Craig Peterson. So he actually fouled it twice. No, you don't get two strikes on that one, although Saboto would like to. There was a cheer when Dixie College came into the field. They had been at an adjacent field taking batting practice, but down that third baseline, that one's going to go foul right towards Gordon Jolly. Over is the third baseman Hanock to grab that one. So it's a 12 count to Craig Peterson leading off the first inning, a change in this ball game. In this tournament it is a nine inning ball game each time you step on the field. But there are 10 and eight rules, except in the championship. Sabota, the right hander for St. Louis Merrimack, known as Merrimack College until recently. The pitch misses ball two, two, two count. We are just about midway between first and home plate, high up above the stands. So we're about face on with the pitcher's mound. Two, two pitch to Peterson, chopped down that first baseline. That one's going to be fair all the way. And the first baseman is going to tag out Peterson. So Peterson grounds out to the first baseman unassisted. Darren Sissel handling that one well enough. And coming to the plate is Scott Sudbury. Buggy Sudbury went into a slump in the district championship and broke out of it in the last game as he reached base in all but one try, drove in four runs, had a double and a home run in that final game, that championship game against Arizona Western. First pitch by Sabota, misses inside. Ball one one. Oh, count. Looks like the strike zone may be just a little tight tonight. Sabota into the wind, up to the plate, fastball up and away. That one's no question. Brad Barker waiting on deck, then KL Sheppard. The usual starting lineup for Dixie, no changes. The last game of the second day of this JUCO tournament. The pitch, head in the air towards second base and back into the outfield grass. Going back is Daniszinski fading and drops. The baseball heard the right fielder coming, had a pop into his glove and pop right back out. So on by way of the error is Sudbury. Bucky Sudbury kept running and should have been an easy one, but the wind held it up. Stanisinski had it all the way. Just looked away as the ball hit his glove because he could hear the right fielder, Mark Pierre coming. So on by way of the error is Buggy Sutbury and Sabota as a little bit. Instead of two men out, has a man out and a man on. And Brad Parker at the plate, wide open stance. Dixie with New Jersey tops all red with white numerals. The pitch call strike to Brad Parker. Parker, especially against a brand new pitcher, is not immune to taking the first pitch. Good crowd. Not a pack house yet, but it's still growing. Brad Barker leading home run hitter and RBI man for Dixie. Pick off over a first. Good move by Sabota back in his Sudbury. Dave Sabota, starting pitcher, the ace of the staff for St. Louis. Merrimack. Into the stretch. Sabota comes to the plate. Breaking pitch, misses high and outside 1 1. Brad Parker, if he gets it up into the air, is not going to be helped by any wind at all. If he hits it out of here, he's got to hit a line drive. But Parker, not that much of a long fly ball hitter. Although he's hit a few. Like that pitch called strike on that outside corner. So one, two, count to Brad Parker. Cale shepherd waiting on deck. Parker, the number two man in RBIs in this postseason play. Number one man in home runs. He's hit four of his 18 home runs since the regular season ended. Swung on and missed on the slow curveball. Strike three. So Parker goes down, two men out and KL Sheppard coming to the plate. Gael shepherd, left handed hitter, comes in hitting 4:12 on the year. 12 home runs, 63 runs batted in. The only other man in double figures in home runs for Dixie. Parker with 18, shepherd with 12. Sabota right handed, hitting a right handed pitcher for St. Louis Merrimack. The pitch, slow curveball, chased and missed. Strike one. Sinking curveball. Shepard tried to time it and swung above it. And out in front of it. Wyatt Cloud waiting on deck. So sabotage. No question why he is the outstanding pitcher for St. Louis Merrimack. He changes feats well. Fastball swung on and missed. Strike two. So he just threw that one by Shepard. So the slow breaking pitch to begin things, then the heat. Oh, two count on KL Sheppard Shepherd. Huge district or region tournament. Fastball just misses inside. Ball one. One, two count. St. Louis Merrimack making their first appearance since 1986. Dixie making only their second appearance ever in this tournament. The pitch fastball hit on the ground towards the second baseman Stanisinski. Stavosinski grabs it after he juggles it a little bit and throws the man out of first base. So Shepard hit it hard on the ground in that inning. No runs, no hits. One error and a man left. And at the end of a half inning of play, Dixie without a score. St. Louis Merrimack to try their hand against Jeff Garf after this timeout. Sony Quality electronics and the Boulevard home furnishings. Your camcorder headquarters invite you to camcorder. That's right. Your prize winning Rose Bush, the winning home team, the children and the sprinklers. The home of your dreams. Save the memories with the Sony camcorder and camcorder. The Boulevard is your camcorder headquarters with Southern Utah's largest selection and lowest prices guaranteed and a service department to service what they sell. When you're looking for the best selection in prices on the best brands, there's no place like the Boulevard Expert Beauty Salon Service at beauty school prices. That's what you get at Evans Hairstyling College. They're located at 995 East Tabernacle. Drop by and set your appointment. Call 673-6128 and watch for registration at Evans Hairstyling College in St. George. Jeff Graff on the mound for Dixie College. No score on the top of the first inning for Dixie, although they did have the man get on board by way of the arrow Sabota making things look easy the first time through on his opening inning. Jeff Garf has been a little wild at times in the first inning. He has had some odd patterns this year. Garf at times has been easy to get to early and then settles down and gets strong. And then at times he started off strong and has had a little shakiness during the middle part of the game and then finishes strong. And at times he's had to hang on after a couple of little blurbs midway through the ballgame. But he's done well. Well Enough to have a 9 and 4 record. 2.96 earned run average. It's not as gaudy as that 1.56 that Dave Sabota has, but still it's not a bad record. Jeff Garf, 6 foot 4 inch freshman right hander, strikeout to walk ratio, we've mentioned that before, 72 to 31 is excellent, but also leads the team in being in hitting batters with 17. So he's not afraid to come inside. And the curve ball sometimes gets the batters leaning a little bit because they anticipate the curve and it doesn't break. And bingo. Mike Brown comes in. Leading off for St. Louis Merrimack. There's Park Place and also florissant as the St. Louis Community College triumvirate there. There are three schools in the St. Louis area who are part of the system. St. Louis Community College system. Mike Brown leading things off. Right handed hitting left fielder, usual defense for Dixie and usual offense to pitch misses inside. Ball one to Mike Brown. Stavasinski, Mark, Pierre do up after Brown. Mike Brown back in the batter's box. Straightaway stance. Strong right handed hitter, lead off hitter. A one oh pitch call strike on that outside corner. So Garf versus Brown, bottom half the first inning. Garf has had a string of complete games. We mentioned 11. If he gets the one today, he's going to have to go a full nine innings in kind of cool weather. Garf to the play. Pitch low and in the dirt. Ball two, two, one count. Garf cannot afford to spend too much time pitching and throwing extra pitches. He expects to go the full nine innings. Two, one pitch called ball outside. Just misses. So he mentioned. We thought it was going to be a tight strike zone and apparently it's going to be. It seemed to be that way for Sabota. 3, 1 count to lead the off hitter Mike Brown. Jeff Garp trying to come back against Brown. The pitch called ball just misses. Brad Thorne holds it there and it's ball four. So the leadoff man is on. And St. Louis Merrimack now with the chance to make some hay against Dixie right off the bat. Win or lose will be on the air Tuesday. If Dixie loses, it's midday. If they win, it's late in the evening. Into the third base, Scott Sudbury anticipating a possible bunt. The pitch hit on the ground hard into right field. So base hit by Stalozinski. Brad Parker up and ready to throw somebody out. Throws behind the runner. So it's a walk and a base hit and suddenly the first two batters are on and Jeff Garf, surprise, surprise, Stalozinski going to right field with that solid ground ball. Actually it was a line drive as it went past the second baseman in the first baseman and then hit the ground. So the number three hitter is up, nobody out top at bottom of the first inning. And Mark Pierre, the right handed hitting right fielder at the plate. St. Louis Merrimack with their wind that has a tendency to blow in, does not hit a lot of home runs. But Mark Pier is the number two man in home runs. He has seven of them on the air, slightly open stance and at first and second creeping in as the first and third baseman call strike on that outside corner. So Garf will have to work his way out of a sticky situation in the bottom of the first. Nobody out first. Two batters on. One Garf put there, the other one earned it on coach Todd Whaley over at third base with signals breaking. Pitch lifted into the air to left field. Skeeter Ellison looking right into that sun as that is the sun field. But he's used to that and the wind playing some tricks out there until the ball players get used to it. Ellison in shallow left field. That's one man out coming to the plate now. Matt Sheffa Schuppa has been the leading hitter on the year at 379. Has some power. Four home runs, leading doubles. Man 19 on the year. And let me double check, maybe the leading RBI man. Nope, tied for second in RBI behind Shepard. The catcher still men at first and second in at first base is Shepard. Pitch up and in ball one. Jason shepherd waiting on deck. So St. Louis Merrimack without all that much power. Comparatively the second lowest home run total of teams in this tournament. The pitch fastball on that outside corner. Strike one one one count. So he mentioned the second lowest home run total among teams in the tournament. Only Indian river of Florida with fewer. But Indian river looked impressive in their first game. Garf fakes the throw at second base. Back in easily is the man down at second. That's Mike Brown. Speed up rules are required if the pitcher bats for himself. And the catcher always will be replaced by runner. Pitch hit off the end of the bat, skipping the rope. Down at first base is the coach, the assistant coach for the Warriors. And his strike two, one two count on Matt Schuffer. Jeff Garf has enough fastball to run it by some people. Although he's not really considered a power pitcher, does have some power aspect. The key for Garf is that big curve ball to step that up infield is back, Shepard is back now with two strikes on the hitter. The pitch. Fastball hit on the ground, backhanded by Shepherd. Shepard is going to get it unassisted at first and everybody moves up 90ft. So a good play by Shepherd. Down at first base to get the second out. On at third base is Brown. On at second is Stalaszynski. And coming to the place, Jason Sheppard. Sheppard, not bad hitter.326 on the year, but he has the power stats. He has eight home runs on the year and leads in RBIs with 40 coming into this tournament. Jason Shepard finished the regular season tied for the home run leadership, but hit one in that. Colby, Kansas, best two out of three. Garf into the stretch even with man on second and third. First pitch called strike. Jason Shepard, bottom of the first inning. Cigar's lost. He's no hitter, which he did throw one this year, but it wasn't one of his two shutouts. He's trying not to lose a shutout too at this point. His Dixie did not score in the top half of the first inning. Garf looking down at Brad Thorne. Likes the sign now into the stretch. The breaking pitch misses inside one. One count umpire. We get a little bit of a delay call on but not much of. What beautiful field. Supplisio Park. Grand Junction has had a minor league professional team here at times, but not now. Fastball hit up to the middle into center field. That's going to bring in one run. Maybe a second is going to die in center. So Craig Peterson will not have a chance. So a two run single by Sheppard and yes, there's a bunch of St. Louis fans here too. And it's two nothing right off the bat. So Sheppard hits the ball hard right up the middle and Brown and Stalozinski score. And those are both earned runs. So Jeff Garf down to nothing immediately. There has been some slugging in this tournament. Shepard will have a pinch runner. Let's see if we can get the number down there. Number eight. That looks like Bob Wilkins. Wilkins, the pinch run for Shepard on the designated runner rule. Shepard the catcher of course. So Bob Wilkins over at first base and at the plate. Left handed hitting Darren Sissel. Pick off over at first base. Back in as Wilkins. So Garf got the ground ball. It was hit hard, but it was not pulled. It was hit right up the middle and Garf had no chance of getting it. So Garf may have to struggle. The pitch called ball just misses low. So Garf with a struggle in the first inning. Two nothing. St. Louis Merrimack out on top of Dixie College here in the bottom of the first inning. Garf into the stretch, looks over at first. Pick off. Back in is Wilkins. Good move. Garf has a good move. Lambert has a good move. Garf has an excellent move to first base for a right hander. Very athletic. He was also a quarterback in high school. Garf able to move his feet. The pitch fouled at the plate and that one may have hit the front foot of Sissel. 1. One count to Darren Sissel. Tim May the designated hitter waiting on deck. So St. Louis Merrimack with a walk, a base hit, the ground ball that got the runners up. And that was a great piece of hitting by Matt Sheffer. If he can't get the base set, at least get the runners along and then they to run. Single by Shepard. Take off over at first. Bounces beyond the first baseman, over against the fence. Turning second is Wilkins. He's going to try for third. Shepherd to make the throw right there. Slides in, tagged himself out. So Shepard, who is a sometimes pitcher, throws a bullet to third base. So the error gets the man to second. The throw by shepherd from three to five gets the man out. So in that inning, two runs on two base, hits an error and nobody left on base. This will come up in the second inning. So at the end of one complete inning of play, two nothing. Dixie out in front or correction. St. Louis Merrimack out in front over Dixie back after this timeout. Sign up today for comenet Cellular's free weekend of phone calls for two months. That means you can place and receive calls on your Con Net cellular phone at no charge during specified weekend hours of midnight Friday through 11:59pm Sunday. The offer is available for a limited time. Find out the details today at Con Net Cellular. Call 628-2002 or see them at 370 West St. George Boulevard. Con Net Cellular. For quality and lasting excellence, protect your concrete investment with deco seal number one in customer service and beautiful concrete coatings others try to imitate. But there's only one true deco Seal. Call 674-2222 today. Leading off the top of the second inning, Dixie down two nothing. Wyatt Cloward, the designated hitter. Pitch outside ball one Cloud right handed hitter slowly but surely took over that DH job that he had alternated with Jamon Tater earlier in the year. But Cloward started to hit with a little more power. Pitch chopped at the plate and bounced up and hit Cloward in the helmet just below the just away from the cheek. Hit that right flap of the mask of the helmet and almost got him in the cheek. So we saw that happen with Peterson. We saw it happen with St. Louis. Merrimack player. Breaking pitch hit to left field. There goes the no hitter as a line single to begin things. Cloud starts things off with his single, just reaches out and spanks that one to left field. So leadoff runner is a hitter is on. And Troy Tuttle coming to the plate. Tuttle, who has been hitting with a little more enthusiasm as the season has gone on. Tuttle, although he didn't have a particularly good average, wise district tournament, comes in hitting.274. He started down in the low two hundreds this year. Freshman shortstop. The pitch by Tuttle, line to right field. Is that going to go foul? It is as he went the other way and just drifted foul. So there's a group of Fans here for St. Louis, no question, but there's also a group of fans here for Dixie, no question there either. And apparently we have some flags from the different states being represented also. I just noticed that behind home plate at the top of the stands. One, one count to Troy. Two, oh, one count to Troy Tuttle. The pitch. Breaking pitch call strike two oh, two counts. So Dixie trying to get something started after St. Louis generated two runs. St. Louis Merrimack in the bottom of the first. Top of the second inning. Sabota gives up the lead off single. Pick off, over at first, back in his Cloud. Good snap tag by Sissel. Thistle throws it by the pitcher coming back, but the third baseman has it. Right now the sun's getting kind of low and the pitcher is kind of in the daylight and the batter is in the shade. The pitch, fastball misses outside. One, two count. No question about it. Sabota can bring it. His fastball is a good fastball. Good solid fastball. The sophomore to the plate. Breaking pitch, misses outside and high ball. 2, 2, 2 count. So some of the best pitching goes out the first day and we've had some of huge, huge scores. It's been the second line pitching that's done a little bit better in the tournament. Into the stretch. Sabotage to the plate. Fastball outside and it's a three, two count. The count is full to Troy Tuttle. Tuttle has a little bit of a penchant for striking out. The question is, does coach Gordon Jolly start Wyatt Cloward? Anyway, Tuttle slightly open stance, has been hitting the ball to all fields more. 3, 2 Pitch to Tuttle. Swung on and missed strike three as he chased one that is marginal on that outside corner. Second strikeout of the day for Sabota. Coming to the plate now, Skeeter Ellison. Ellison, who was held a little bit in check in the region championship, just exploded in the district tournament. Have three home runs in postseason play. Solid pitcher, no question. One of the best pitchers that Dixie has seen this year. Into the stretch comes to Ellison. The pitch fouled over behind third base and into the stands. Oh two to Ellison. One of the nice things for Sabota is he's been working ahead of the hitter outside of the leadoff hitter for St. Louis Merrimack. Jeff Garf doing the same thing on at first base. Cloud, one man out. Oh two count to Skeeter Ellison. Do you come right after Ellison? The pitch hit hard to left center field. That's going to get Cloward over to third. It gets beyond the left fielder. Ellison right on the track. Ellison is going to go from second. Trying to go to third. Trying to come home is Cloud. Run scoring triple by Peter Ellicott. Ellison triples in a run and the fans below us go wild. Great play as Ellison had to get beyond the left fielder, hit the hard line drive and it's a two to one ball game. So Ellison, the lower end of the order doing some damage for Dixie and Skeeter. Ellison with that good level swing, gets his first triple in postseason play and on the year, his seventh triple. That puts him one ahead of his home run total. Sabota, is he going to make an appeal at second base? There's going to be an appeal at second base that Ellison may have missed it or that Cloud may have missed it. Are they going to say the first or are they going to make two appeals? Sabota into the stretch, will step off the rubber, go to second base. Safe. Are they going to make another appeal? They did and I think that was for Ellison because Ellison got to third base so fast. I don't think it was for Clowart. But Saboto will go into the full wind up now. Brad Thorne with a chance to tie it left handed. Hitting catcher or switch hitting catcher call strike at the knee. Batting left against the right handed pitcher. So it's a two to one ball game. Ellison with that triple into the left center field. One strike pitch to Thorne. Slow curveball, fouled off. Oh, two counts. So Sabota doing what he needs to do, keeping ahead of the runner or the batter. Troy Tuttle worked it back to a full count after being down. Oh two. That's the only three ball count that Sabota's had on a Dixie player yet. Oh, two pitch to Thorne. Pitch outside. Ball one. Thorne anxious to be here. No question about that. He was happy to be here. Wearing number four on the back of the red jerseys. New uniforms at least tops. The bottoms are the same. The pitch fastball chopped out and missed. It was a strikeout and a weak strikeout at that by Thorn. Didn't really get a good cut at it. Looked like it was a hard slider from the way he swung. That's the third strikeout. Two men out and Justin Garrett at the play. Garrett has had some timely hits, hitting.370 in postseason play.333 on the year. The number nine hitter.370 in postseason with five runs batted. Ian in postseason pitch called strike. So Zubota knowing what to do on the mound. He's coming right after Dixie Ellison. The potential tying run at first at third base after that triple run scoring triple. So Ellison has kept the hot bat. The wind blowing almost directly in from right field now instead of directly in from center field. The lights are on although the sun isn't down yet. And the pitcher more and more is getting into the shadows along with the hitter. The pitch misses. Up and in. Ball 1, 1, 1 count on deck is Craig Peterson. Dixie trying to get back after falling behind two nothing. It's back to a two to one ball game pitched to Justin Garrett. Misses outside ball two, two, one count. We mentioned this is scheduled for a nine inning game. All JUCO games are scheduled for nine innings. The championship game will be played for nine innings no matter what. Just like the district tournament. No matter what the score, the pitch misses. All the gays call strike on the corner. Two, two count. And the fans giving a few huzzahs on that one. Negative huzzah. That was one of the few times tonight that that corner seemed to be there for either pitcher. Two, two count to Justin Garrett. The pitch by Zubota hit on the ground. Right back to Sabota. He'll go to first. The throw in time to retire the side. But in that inning, one run on two solid base hits, nine no errors and a man left. And after one and a half innings of play, St. Louis Merrimack two Dixie one back after this timeout. Buick the new symbol of quality in America. Hometown dealership Bradshaw, Buick, Cedar City, Newby, Buick St. George and Newby Auto center in Richfield are family owned dealerships known as your Southern Utah Buick dealers. Three good reasons why people prefer to buy their new Buicks in Southern Utah. No high pressure, no high overhead. It's more like buying a car from your neighbor with the service to match. The symbol of quality in America. At Newby, Buick, St. George, Bradshaw, Buick, Cedar City and Newby Auto Center. Ridgefield. Champion Cellular has great special cell phones. Start at $18.95, flip phones at $99. 400 minutes free for the first two months after activation. Some restrictions apply. Call Champion Cellular, 59705000 or 632-51-76. 2 1. St. Louis Merrimack with the lead over Dixie. Jeff Garf trying to keep St. Louis in check. Walking a single helped set himself up for two runs to be brought in. After he got the next two hitters. It was the mine drive single by Sheffer Shepard who eventually got the two runs in Skeeter Ellison's RBI triples scoring Cloward all the way from first. Ellison almost caught Cloward between second and third. Sissel. Darren Sissel at the plate. Clean slate. Up at the front of the batter's box. Pitch way outside, ball one. Sissel apparently trying to make adjustments for that big curve ball that Jeff Garf has. He has a big overhang curveball that it can be deadly. The pitch to Sissel, bunted, grabbed by Garf, sets himself, throws the first. Does he have his man? Yes, just inside. The fans. A little bit concerned about that one. It was a boom, boom play at first base, first base. Umpire calling him out. Sissel can fly down that line and he got a running jump as he pushed it to third. So one man out and Tim May, the designated hitter, coming to the plate. So Garf pounced off that mound, made the good play, almost wound up to first instead of flipping it and that almost got the man off. The pitch to May, hit hard to center field. There's Craig Peterson, has it measured all the way as the line drive to center field. So in three pitches, two outs, two up, two down and Mark Hammock a short stop coming to the plate. Hannock on the year comes in hitting.254. This is not the best hitting teams in terms of average, but maybe one of the best defensive teams and one of the best pitching teams in this tournament. St. Louis Merrimack, they have the 2 to 1 lead right now. Wide open. Stats by Hanock obviously does not want to over stride pitch. Swung on and fouled. I think it looked like it went off the hand or maybe fouled off the catcher's glove. It was an odd, odd foul ball. Umpire didn't signal foul ball but it suddenly came in our direction. One strike count to Hanik. Jeff Garf much steadier this inning so far. Big curve ball, way up high. Ball one. Garf has had problems. Missing up. Not messing up, missing up. He isn't bringing that curveball down or that fastball down. He'll hang a few here or there. The pitch. Fastball call. Strike. That one was brought down into the strike zone. One, two count. Bottom of the second inning. Two men out. Nobody on for St. Louis Merrimack. St. Louis Merrimack with a 21 lead over Dixie in the first round. Game in the juco. Big curveball backs him out of there. Doesn't break enough. Two, two count. Chris Thorpe waiting on deck for St. Louis. Garfield. Solid right hander the last time I was here, back in 89. I'll tell you a little more about a right hander. The pitch. Fastball. Swung on and missed. Never caught up with it. First strikeout for Garf. 3 up, 3 down. No runs, no hits, no errors, nobody left at the end of two. It's a 2 to 1 lead for St. Louis. Merrimack back after this timeout. For when you're banking on the run, we're the bank for convenience. 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He's 0 for 1 tonight. Pitch call. Strike at the knees. One strike count to Craig Peterson. Peterson comes in hitting.309 on the year. Not a whole bunch of power, although he did have five doubles, a triple and a grand slam. Home run. Breaking pitch at the dirt. Ball one one one call for Craig Peterson. Back all the way around is the infield Left fielder is playing Peterson as if he's going to pull. Peterson has been known to hit it down that left field line, so that could be a challenge. Still ahead, the pitch grounded over the head of the pitcher. The second baseman is going to have to hustle. It slips the underhand throw to first baseman Sissel. So Stanisinski. Stanisinski is being challenged a lot tonight. Batter up, batter out. Buggy Sudbury. Sudbury hit the little pop fly into right field last time, so it looks like St. Louis Merrimack is going to play him to push it. Left fielder is over right in the sun. And that left field line is wide open. Sidearm hit on the ground to Stalozynski. Stalozinski up, throws to first and once again, ground ball. So the defense now is starting to hold on both sides. An error on both sides, but now everything's looking a lot stronger. So four pitches and two men out. Brad Parker coming to the plate. Parker a strikeout victim. His first time leading RBI man on the year was 71 for Dixie and a bundle in postseason play. The pitch low with a curveball. Ball one. Don't want to give Parker his fastball right off as he's got your time. Parker, number two RBI man in postseason play with 13 pitch. Fastball fouled. Back, straight back. One one count. Just missed that one. So Tubota, good solid right hander. Sabota, 6 foot, 180 pounder, 101 record, trying to make it 11 and 1 to the plate. Pitch line. Foul down that right field line. So a 12 count to Brad Parker. Lots of scouts here, lots of milling around. And slowly but surely, the stands are almost packed. Lots of fans. There should be 10,000 here by the time we get through. I don't know, about 10,000, maybe 6,7000. Anyway, I'm not sure. About 10,000. I don't know. Tavota to the plate. Fritz way up. Ball two. Two, two count to Brad Parker. Waiting on deck is KL Sheppard. Parker in postseason play has hit a cool 414 to lead Dixie. Average wise coming into tonight's game. Two two pitch to Parker. Pitch in the dirt, away. Three, two count to Brad Parker. KL Sheppard waiting on deck. Sabota's already given up his one. If he gives up another one, he's ahead of his earned run average. Brad Parker, the type of guy, even with a wind, who could tie this one up. Pitch up. Ball four. And Brad Parker, the walking man, walks again. Man on at first base, Brad Parker. KL shepherd coming to the plate. Shepherd Grounded out to the second baseman. His first time up. Hit it sharply, but right at Stanisinski. Stalozinski. I keep wanting to say Stanisinski. There's a W in there and he doesn't get the V sound, so he has anglicized it. Stalozinski. Pitch to shepherd, grounded towards Belazinski. Backhands. It takes it at second base unassisted. So Shepard polite.042 and that ends the inning. So in that inning, no runs, no hits, no errors. A man left at the end of two and a half. It's a 21 lead for St. Louis Merrimack. Back after this timeout. For all your lighting needs and accessories. Wilkinson's House of the word on the street and in certain circles is Wilkinson's for all your lighting needs and accessories, and especially if you want good service. We try real hard to be helpful and make your shopping enjoyable. Wilkinson's for lighting, electrical, electronics, appliances and gifts. Wilkinson's a unique place to shop. Wilkinson's a unique place to shop. Thought you couldn't afford a maid. Now you can call the maids at 634-0840 and see how inexpensive it can be to have a beautifully clean home. The maids are licensed, bonded and guaranteed. Call the maids today at 634-0840 in Southern Utah. This is the Sports Leader, KSGIAM and FM St. George. Bottom of the third inning. St. Louis Meramec will lead off with their ninth hitter, Chad Thorpe. Then it's to the top of the order, Mike Brown and Steve Sawazinski. 21 lead, St. Louis Merrimack over Dixie. By the way, we're trying to keep you up to date. We started that LA Montreal game before we so rudely interrupted it with more important stuff for Dixie. Dixie. St. Louis Merrimack 1 Nothing, Louisiana. Over Montreal in the bottom of the fifth. So apparently no mo is still going. First pitch by Garruff. Up, way up and in. Ball one. The Garf. A little bit of problem with wildness. Has walked a one batter so far. Leadoff hitter in the first, but has not been that tight with the strike zone. Pitch. Swung on and missed. Strike one. No question. Thorpe was not on that one. He was a good fortnight behind that one on the swing. 11 count to Chad Thorpe. Waiting on deck, Mike Brown. St. Louis Merrimack with a 21 lead. The pitch misses. Ball two. 21 count St. Louis Merrimack. First time back in the tournament since 1986. The last time they were here, Coach Todd Whaley was a Player into the wind, up the fastball, swung on and missed. Strike two to count. So if Garf can get the fastball over, they have not timed him yet. Garf throwing some heat. Six foot four, musket or right hander, the freshman. The fastball looped in the air towards right field. Brad Parker coming in and grabbing that one. The Parker had it measured all the way. First man out and Mike Brown coming to the play. Brown walked and scored what proved to be the breakthrough run that got the first run in. Right behind him was Zpaluszinski, who had singled right behind him on that single by Shepherd. And that's a difference. That two run single compared to the one run triple by Dixie. Two to one, the lead. The first pitch to Brown. Fastball fakes the bump, pulls the bat back. Ball one. I mentioned Jeff Garf. Reminds me of a young man who was here last time I was at the Juco, back in 89. A young man by the name of David Evans with San Jacinto. The pitch, Fastball butted at and fouled. Strike one. One One count. So Brown trying to bring that infield in buggy Sudbury even with the bag at third. Cal Shepard back at first base. And somewhere, I think St. Louis Merrimack feels that they're going to have trouble with Garf the rest of the way. 11 count to Brown. Breaking pitch, chop foul over right to coach Todd Whaley. Juggles it. Third time of grabbing it in midair. He gets a good hold on it. Bounce off the wrist, bounce off the shoulder, grab it in midair. One, Two count to Mike Brown. Jeff Garf with one man out, bottom of the third inning. The pitch. Breaking pitch, chased and missed in the dirt, picked up by Brad Thorne. I'll have to throw to first and does so. Took his own sweet time of doing it. So it'll be out with assist to Thorne. Put out to Shepherd. That's strikeout number two by Garf. And Stalozinski coming to the plate. Stahlisinski followed the walk with a prompt single. First pitch, hitting to right field. Shepherd and Garrett kind of pinching together at second base. Shepard a little ways off the back, Breaking pitch tall strike. Went right through that strike zone from top to bottom, left to right, or right to left, depending on which way you're lucky. Umpire. Left or right. It covered that whole strike zone with that big curveball. Oh, one count to Stala Zinski. Garf into the wind, up, comes back to the plate. Fastball call. Strike two. Hits that corner. Oh, to count Now Garf, they mentioned, looks like David Evans, who was the most valuable player in the 1989 championship. The San Jac won. That's one of the key games for San Jac was the victory over Dixie in that second round. Pitch sisted foul down the first baseline. Drifting out of play. Jam couldn't get around on it. Oh, two count holds to Stalazinski. Jeff Garf behind two to one as the two runs in the first inning. The difference for St. Louis Merrimack, the pitch, big curveball grounded to Sudbury. Eats him. A big hop goes down the first baseline. I think that may be a base hit. Let's see if they count that as an error or a base hit. Hustling over was Keeter Ellison. I think they're going to call out a base hit. Big bounce right into the sun. So Stalozinski is on by way of the base hit. That is the third off of Garfield. Sudbury had a chance at it, but it took a big bounce right into the sun. When Sudbury got there and could not see it, tried to backhand it and it bounced up over the glove. Mark Pier at the plate. Flight out to the left fielder, his first time up. A man on it. First of ground ball right up the middle. Gathered up by Garrett. Juggles it, goes to first. Error, throws it away. Trying to go on to third is Shepard. And so there will be at least one error on that, maybe two. And they say, yes, it hit the dugout. So we may have two errors on that same play. Let's see if they just give the one error. So men on at second and third, they rule that that hit in the dugout and came back out. And that's the discussion. No, they're going to say the man goes home. So it's going to be a double error. And Gordon Jolly is going to argue on this one that it did not go into the dugout, that it came bounding back out. And Gordon Jolly wants to talk right now. The umpire waves the runner home. So there's an error that allowed the runner to get on and maybe two errors on this play because Garrett then throws it away. So reaching on the error is fear. And he is at second base. No question about that. And let's see if they counted as two errors. Yes, they do. And the throwing error allows the runner to score. So two errors on the same play. And Pierce on at second. And Garrett has allowed the run to score. Gordon Jolly claiming that the man was headed to third anyway on the throw. And that was a tough call. It did not look like the man was going to third until the ball was thrown away. But that's the ruling by the base umpire. And suddenly it's a three one ball game with Mark Pierre on at second base. And two errors by Garrett in that same play. Ground ball to Sudbury. Through Sudbury and an error again. And suddenly Dixie having problems with defense. So back to back errors. That is four in the ball game by Dixie. And we're only in the third inning. So Dixie struggling and Jeff Garf having to overcome problems as Sudbury, who had a struggle in the first game of the doubleheader against Arizona Western. Shepherd suddenly having ground ball eat him up. So Shepard, who had the two run single in the first inning to make it a two nothing ball game. Garf trying to work out a thing. Garf with two strikeouts on the night, should be out of this inning. Pickoff over at first. The throw is there, but one of the errors belongs to Garf. A throwing error that allowed a man to go to second. Pickoff over it. First back in. Shepard with two men out. A run in by way of the throwing error. Men at the corners. Bottom of the third inning in St. Louis Merrimack. A chance to make mincemeat out of Dixie. Call strike. Dixie not helping their own cause right now. And they're giving this away with Sabota on the mound. And Sabota has kept Dixie to just two hits, both in that second inning. Oh, one count. Pick off, over at first. Back in. Here's the runner, Schuffa. Matt Schuffa on at first. Pier is over at third, so Schuffa at the plate at first base to fake to third to throw to first. Almost a balk. Garf almost stepped towards home as he faked to third. Instead put the foot towards third base and then whirled to pick off again. Right on the money. But back in is Schuffa. Garf trying to keep Sheffa close, anticipating the steal. Schuffa very quick with the feet. Good base stealer. The pitch. Fastball swung on and missed. Strike two goes through it by Sheppard. Jeff Garf cool, calm and collected on the mound. In spite of the run. Coming in by way of the error and being in a sticky situation because of the error, the defense has been stronger for St. Louis Merrimack. Pickoff again, back in as the runner. But this is a long ball game scheduled for nine. We're on the bottom of the third, Dixie versus St. Louis Merrimack. Win or lose, Dixie plays Tuesday. And we'll have all the action for you on ksgi. Fastball hit to right field. Brad Parker is not going to catch up with it. Shepard's going to drive in one run, maybe two. Back in the corner, Parker throws a strike to Shepherd. Shepherd holds the man at third. Beautiful throw by Parker. But the run is in on the double by Shepherd. So an RBI double and shepherd has another run in. And we have the pinch runner once again. So Wilkins will be in. And Wilkins in running once again. Shepard gets the second and Darren Sissel, who was left at the plate in the first inning, Suddenly it's a four to Pierce. Scored easily. Schuffer held at third with Parker's rifle out of right field. Parker threw a strike to Shepherd. Pitch. Swung on and missed. Strike one. So two unearned runs here in this inning. Four runs given up by Garf. Only two of them earned those in the first inning. And Dixie, not being their own friends right now. Into the stretch. Garf looks at third, comes to the play. Big curveball outside. Ball 111 count to Darren Sizzle. So Dixie down 4 to 1 to St. Louis Merrimack on what is turning out to be kind of a cool night in Grand Junction. Garf to the plate. Fastball fouled. Strike two. One two count. Darren Sissel butted, tried to butt his way off in that first inning, was thrown in that second inning and was thrown out by Garf. 12 count to Sissel. Sissel is dropped back a little farther in the batter's box. Away from the front in a third is Sudbury. Fastball gets beyond the catcher and are they going to call it? They hit the battery, hit the batter. So the man has to go back. So a hit batter. And that saved Garf this time as he loaded the bases. The man go back to third. And the second, it'll go as a dead ball once it hits the batter. That is the 18th batter hit this year by Jeff Garf. And the base is loaded. Tim May coming to the plate. May line to the center fielder, his first time up. So Peterson prepared to see if he gets it again. Right handed. Hitting Tim May against Jeff Garf. Two runs in here on the bottom of the third inning. St. Louis Merrimack. First pitch called strike. Little slider on that inside corner. Garf throws a hard slider when he throws one good easy motion. Garth trying to battle back now. Dixie is down three runs to maybe the best pitcher in the tournament. The pitch grounded towards the first baseman under the glove of Shepherd. Grabbed by Garrett. Throw to first in time. Great play by Garrett. The Garrett responds and they get the throw to first base. Tough call as it's a bang bang play at first and May is thrown out. That saves a run. So it'll go four to one for the out in that inning. Two runs on one, two base hits. Two. Three big errors. And the bases were left loaded. And at the end of three complete, it's four to one. St. Louis Merrimack back after this timeout. Hey, sports fan, if you like the strength of the GMC name behind the truck you drive, now's the time to make a dash to your local color country GMC dealer. With a huge selection of 95 models available now, you'll score big on screen savings on the hottest trucks on the road. Check out their line of Jimmy's Sierra Sierra Club coupes and Suburbans. They're slick and they're tough and they're priced for immediate delivery. Your GMC guarantee is that you'll come out a winner. Stop by today at Newby GMC St. George, Tri State GMC Cedar City and Newby Auto Center, Richfield. Buying or selling real estate? Era Brokers Consolidated has four offices to serve you in St. George, Bloomington, Hurricane and Mesquite, Nevada. Nobody sells real estate like Era Brokers. Go team. Era 1, 800 Era Brokers. Top of the fourth inning, Dixie with a 4 to 1 deficit. Two of those earned, two of them unearned. With a defensive nightmare that hit the third inning for the Rebels. Cloud, who lined to left field in that second inning to get the first hit off of Sabota. The first of two. Keter Ellison has the other. The run scoring triple will try to start things here in the fourth. First pitch to Cloward. Fastball misses ball one. Cloud has been known to chase that pitch outside, but not this time. Blankets and coats. I see in the stands, the wind still blowing. Pitch call. Strike on that corner. One one count with a breaking pitch. So Cloward with a one one count, one four one on the night and has scored the only run. Fort Dixie College scoring all the way from first on that triple. The pitch. Breaking pitch. Swung on and missed. Strike two. Took a little something off of it. Sabota working like a surgeon on that mound, throwing strikes. The calmness of Sabota not getting rattled even when he was hit around a little bit in the second inning. One two pitch to Cloward. Fastball. Does he hold up? Yes. Strike three. Anyway called strike three. So Cloward goes down. That is strikeout number four for Sabota. Troy Tuttle, the second strikeout victim for Sabota at the plate 0 for 1 on the night. Sabota trying to wade right through Dixie's hitters, swung on and missed strike one. So Sabota throwing strikes, started with a slider that time. Royden Kate down at first base. Dixie had this problem twice, once in each tournament. The pitch. Fastball call. Strike two on that outside corner where Dixie struggled at the bat against Salt College of Southern Idaho in the Region 18 tournament. And then it just exploded from that time off. Oh, two count to Tuttle. Sidearms. It misses outside. Ball one. Sabota. Good easy motion for Sabota also. The 6 foot, 180 pound right hander looks like he could throw all day out there. One, two, count to Tuttle. Tuttle misses. No call. Strike three on that inside corner. Tuttle tried to scoot out of the way. And the umpire getting a little earful from Tuttle now. And Skeeter Ellison coming to the plate. Tuttle may have received a warning from the home plate umpire. He just dropped his bat as he started to walk back. Skeeter Ellison lined a triple to left center field his first time up. Switch hitter, two men out, Top of the fourth inning. Into the plate. Fastball line to right center field. Ellison will get at least two. Turn first hits to second. Ellison will hold up a second to a triple and a double as Ellison lining the ball all over the field. So with two men out, Skeeter Ellison goes to left center. Goes to right center this time to right center. A double and a triple so far for Legrand. And Brad Thorne coming to the plate. Thorne a strikeout victim, his first time. He's 0 for 1. Top of the fourth inning. Dixie versus St. Louis Merrimack, the seventh game. This is game number seven of this tournament. But the last game of the first round. There have been two games already in the second round. Pitch kicked to right field and fairly deep. Back goes Ellison. That one may carry. It does into the wind. Home run. Brad Thorn. Brad Thorne two run home run. And the Dixie fans are alive again. That one didn't look like it was going to carry. And then it looked like it got little boost as it hit just above the warning track. The Brad Thorne two run home run. He has four of them on the year, three of them in postseason play. So it's the bottom end of the order that are eating up pitching. And it's a 4:3 ballgame. And Tabota has given up twice as many earned runs as he normally does. 1.56. Usually he has three even right now. Justin Garrett to the Plate Fastball called. Strike on that outside corner. Garrett grounded out to the pitcher his first time up. So Dixie back in this ball game. 4:3 and those unearned runs look huge right now. Breaking pitch call. Strike two. Waiting on deck is Craig Peterson. So it's the second and the fourth inning and Dixie has produced runs. And the Dixie fans going wild on this one. Next pitch by Sabota. Misses outside ball 112 count. We mentioned it's a long ball game. This may be a slug fest before it's all over. Even with all the good pitching, we had a 16 to 15 game in 10 innings in the second game of this tournament. Fastball just misses. Sabota wondering what happened to the corner that time. Two two counts. The fastball to Justin Garrett, right handed, hitting second baseman Sabota into the wind. Up the fastball, chased and missed. Strike three. And that's the second strikeout in this inning, fifth on the ball game for Sabota. But in that inning, two runs on two base hits, no errors, nobody left. And at the end of three and a half, St. Louis Merrimack with a 43 lead over Dixie back after this timeout. Your Southern Utah Buick dealers, Newby Buick in St. George, Bradshaw Buick in Cedar City and Newby Auto center in Richfield invite you to get behind the wheel of an exciting new Buick. Buicks are rated among the most trouble free cars in America. And right now the price is right and the selection has never been better at your Southern Utah Buick dealer. Customer service and satisfaction is the highest priority. That's why over half the business is from repeat guidelines, Customers, customer service and satisfaction from your Southern Utah Buick dealer. Don't chance it. When it comes to financing your home, call Medallion Mortgage for va, FHA or Conventional to purchase or refinance your home Medallion mortgage in business since 1958 and they'll pre qualify you for free. Call 628-9006 or see them at 60 North 300 east in St. George. Medallion Mortgage Back at Supplisio park where Dixie has gotten two of the runs back. A 43 ballgame as they go to the bottom of the fourth inning. Jeff Garf will have Mark Han, Chris Thorpe and then the top of the order, Mike Brown to face Dixie with defensive struggles in that third inning. Boy, we have a whole bunch of people, lots of Dixie fans down below. Dixie College student Mike Payne and his fiance. I understand you guys are rendezvousing here in Grand Junction, right? Okay, one of my students at Dixie College and my student spouse to be also Bob Case a number one fan for Dixie College. He's been up here trying to keep out of the wind with me. First pitch called strike with a slider on that outside corner. So Hanukkah strikeout victim his first time. He was the first of the strikeout victims for Jeff Garf. Garf has had two of them. First of two, one strike. Pitch up high. Ball one one. One count to Hennick. Dixie trying to get into that championship bracket. Every time they win, they will play another day. If they lose, a second loss shunts them out of the tournament. The pitch, fastball fisted foul back out of play, over behind first base. One two count. Chris Thorpe waiting on deck. Dixie rallying with two runs in the fourth on the two run home run by Brad Thorne. So Thorne never looked like it was going to carry. I looked at that and it looked like it was going to hit off the wall at best and then just kept carrying. Pitch misses down low. Ball two, two, two count Brad Thorne. Amazing. Eight runs batted in in postseason play. Three home runs. Only has four on the year. All of them left handed by the way. But that gave new life to Dixie. The pitch. Swung on and missed. Strike three. Never caught up with it. The Garf gets the first pitcher. First hitter I should say. And for Garf, that is strikeout number three. Chad Thorpe had a little flare to right field that Brad Parker settled under his first time up. So he's 0 for 1 on the night. We're in the bottom of the fourth inning. Dixie versus St. Louis. Merrimack Thorpe, not a bad hitter though his average is a number nine hitter. Pitch grounded up the middle into center field.290. And that's why as it gets into the outfield, you have to charge as an outfielder because that's. That ball dies as it hits the outfield. The new turf two weeks old here at Supplisio Park. You can see it's still a little rough in the outfield. They mowed it again today. But you can still see the outlines of part of the turf where it was laid down on the infield. It is magnificent on the outfield. Still pretty decent. Brown has walked and struck out. Brown scored the first run of the ball game after leading off the bottom of the first with a walk. Man out, A man on. Do you look for the bunt? The pitch. No, in the dirt. Ball one. So Thorpe on at first base with a one out single. That's hit number five off of Garf. Garf normally doesn't give up that many hits, but today he has Been hit around a little bit, but you're talking the ten best teams in the United States. Division one junior college. Over 400 division one junior college schools play baseball. Plus they have division two and three. There goes the runner. The pitch. Swung on and missed. Strike. The throw through. Do they have him? No, he's just under the tag. So Thorpe with a stolen base, gets the second base. The base umpire there is the same one who waved the runner home. So Dixie fans are not too happy with him anyway. But it'll look like he just got the hand under the tag. A beautiful throw by Thorne Brown waved at the pitch to try to distract the catcher. If it did, it was just enough to get the runner in there. One. One count to Mike Brown. Man at second. One man out. Breaking pitch. Almost chased and miss in the dirt. Thorne grabs it. Brad Thorne having his work cut out for him with Jeff Garfield. He'll end up with pitches in the dirt quite a bit. But Thorne Ironman, catcher, he has been the catcher of every inning in postseason play all nine games. The pitch. Fastball call. Strike two. Foul belt high on that outside corner. Two. Two count to Jeff Garf. Dixie back at the infield. They aren't anticipating any bunt, especially with two strikes on Mike Brown. 4 3. St. Louis Merrimack with the lead breaking pitch. Chopped at the plate, grabbed fair and thrown over the head of the first baseman. Another error by Dixie. The throw by Parker to second base. Do they have him? No, they say that he slid under it. And Toy Tuttle a little beside himself. So it'll be an error to get the man on at first base and on to second. Parker with that rifle arm held the runner at third as Thorpe had to hold up. He could not vary too far. So the error by the catcher. And that's the fifth error in the ball game by Dixon. Brown on its second. Thorpe on at third. One man out. And the infield is in. And suddenly. Stalazinski at the plate, who is 2 for 2. The pitch. Call strike. Stalozinski. That may have been the best fastball that Garf has thrown all night. Maybe a little anger behind that one. So the error on the catcher and almost the runner almost thrown out going into second bases. Parker got to that one in a hurry. Thorne grabbed it out in front of the plate to try to get the easy out if he could, and then threw over the first baseman. Breaking pitch. In the dirt. Ball one. One. One count to Stalozinski. Stalozinski, each time he is singled, has ended up scoring. So if there's runs scored now before two outs, one will be earned, one will be unearned. The earned run will be the one at first base or at third base, I should say. Chad Thorpe reached on the single to the plate, fastball up ball two to one count. So Garf not being helped by his defense, being hindered by the defense, no question. And it may be a case of first game jitters for Dixie. Dixie playing as poor a defense as they had in that next to the last game against Arizona Western. Dixie righted themselves for the last game. Garf into the stretch, steps off the mound. In at third base is Sudbury. So Sudbury is the only one that's going to try to cut off the run at the plate. Dixie wants the outs right now. The infield is back. Otherwise, except for buggy Sudbury at third. The pitch, excuse me. And fouls it off. Tries to hold up, but that is foul for strike two. Two, two count to Stalozinski. Stalozinski helped get things started for Dixie, but it never really got culminated as he dropped a pop fly into right field in that first inning. Gordon jolly waving Brad Parker in, figuring that Stalwazzinski is not going to hit it over his head. With the wind blowing in the pitch fouled off again. Stalozinski tried to hold up and the ball just bored in on him. Count Holtz. Two balls, two strikes. Jeff Garf having to throw a lot of pitches in this first game. Lance Lambert scheduled for the second game. Dixie would like to plan on having more than two. Infield is now in on the grass. 2, 2 pitch, breaking pitch, misses ball three count is full to Spelazinski. You don't want to walk Stalozinski because suddenly you're in the power part of the order. 3, 4, 5. Right after that. And there's only one man out to Bleefield park. Abuzz right now with Dixie's errors. Five in the inning, in the game. Pitch hit on the ground just off the glove of the second baseman. The infield is in. That made it a base hit. Two runs will score, one will be earned. And Stalozinski is three for three. Make it a six to three ball game. So the two run single by Stalazinski and two run score, one of which is earned. So Brown scores after almost being thrown out at second base. Thorpe scores and it's a matter of inches. A couple of inches sooner and Thorpe has thrown out at second. Brown is thrown out at second. Also Mark Beer at the plate reached on an error. Hasn't a lot and flight out to left field. So he's on for two. Foul ball. Garf gives up the two run single. It's a six to three ballgame. St. Louis Merrimack out in front. So a team that does not known for its hitting did not have the best batting average coming into this ball game. Among all of the potential JUCO teams is struggling. Is not struggling because he Garf to struggle. The pickoff is not in time. Mark Pierce spelled P E R. And yes, if you want to get corny. Pierre trying to put pressure on the pitcher commonly known as altogether now. Pierre pressure. One strike count on Mark. Fear into the stretch. Garf to the plate. Called strike two. Buzzes the fastball on that outside corner. Still only one man out. So even if Garf gets through Pierre, he's not through. Dixie not helping Garp at all. The ground ball single by Stalozinski. If the infield is not in, Garrett has the ground ball. It was just inches beyond his dive. Dive towards second base as it was hit up the middle. And because he was in that cut down the angle. Otherwise he takes two steps and gets it. Pitch. There goes the runner. No, he holds up. Pitch up high. Ball one. One, two count. Faking the run. Down at second base is Stawasinski. So Stawaszinski, his book is now on the plus side, committed the one error. Did not allow a run though the error he committed. And that's the only error on the board for St. Louis Merrimack. But he is back in fine fettle. Three for three, two runs scored, two runs driven in. So he's accounted for four out of the six runs. Enough to get the lead. There goes Solozynski. Curveball. Ground ball to Tuttle. Ground. Tries to come up with it and he backhands it. And I think that will go as an error also. Let's double check. They're going to go with an error. So that's the sixth one of the ball game as Petal should have had that one. And Dixie really struggling. So Stalozinski on at second base. Pier on at first. Matt Shapa. The short stop grounded out to the first baseman. Hit the ground ball that ate up buggy Sudbury in at first base is Shepard. The pitch call strike on that outside corner. So six errors in the ball game by Dixie. Tuttle had that one as a ground ball. If he fields it cleanly, it's going to be iffy because it was deep in the hole to get him at first base. But he did not field it cleanly had a shot at getting somebody if he feels it cleanly. Pitch outside. Ball one, one one count. So six errors in the ball game. And talk about a nightmare. A nightmare defensively for Dixie right now, six to three, still only one man out in the fourth inning. Breaking pitch called strike two. And that was up in the strike zone. Dangerous one two count to shove. Waiting on deck is Jason Sheppard, who has produced runs with each of his swings of the bat into the stretch. Garf looks at second. Breaking pitch, hits the batter. He did not get out of the way. The umpire says it stays right there. It's a two, two count. Sheffa did not even move the elbow. The home plate umpire says he didn't make an attempt to get out of the way. It's ball two. Sheffa didn't even make a flinch, just took it off the elbow, steps right in there and Sheffa didn't argue. So it's a 2, 2 count rather than the bases be loaded. St. Louis Merrimack must know a little something about Garf. Fastball foul down that first base line. Count holds two balls, two strikes. Home plate umpire jumped out immediately. By the way, we interrupted the Montreal LA game. That's in the bottom of the fifth, one nothing LA over the Montreal Expos trying to catch up with that one. Stalker Stadium has stayed in effect for the Mesa State football team, but now for baseball has been named after a man who has been the heart and soul of the JUCO in recent years. Sam Ciplizio, Sarah Bill, the director of the Junior college, the World Series program and the committee here. Dixie College versus St. Louis Merrimack. This is the fifth and final first round game and already there have been two teams who have been eliminated from this tournament. Earlier in the day we had two teams who bowed out in elimination games. We'll get to all of that a little bit later, but let me give you a little background. The St. Louis Merrimack came into this ball game as the only ball club who has not ended up with either ranking or at least votes in the final rankings. And for Dixie College, a team that has received votes this year, but has never really been ranked, the only team from the region who has been ranked has been Ricks College. Ricks finishing well, was ranked 20th at one time or another this year. But this is a case of two underdog teams on what has become one of the two premier games for fans to show up and watch this game tonight. And of course, the Memorial Day Monday night game draws more fans than anyone else. Any of the other games in this Junior College World Series. A little background on the park. The park has been expanded. It had been expanded when we got here in 1989 with the Dixie College baseball team. Back then, my first trip to the juco, they had added some sands down the third baseline and had paved the area under the stands to keep the dust down. Roving herds of junior high school teenagers used this as the hangout. This is the place to be during the week of juco. Now one other change has taken place. There's been more stands added to the left field side. And earlier this year there was alright turf but some problems with it. Two weeks after the Mesa State season ended two weeks ago, I should say there was a huge effort to get new turf in and complete it. So this field was entirely changed. The turf taken out, it was lowered three feet. New turf, new sod was brought in on top of new dirt. So the field was lowered 3ft, then raised back up 3ft and Brand new turf with that. The turf is awfully heavy. It has been a little bit slow in the outfield, but on the infield it has been beautiful. And if you look at the park, you would never know that this is Turf that's only two weeks old and just up for the juco. We talked with coach Todd Whaley of St. Louis Merrimack and also with Coach Gordon Jolly prior to this game. Let's be back with Coach Todd Whaley after this timeout. We're the bank for the brand new generation. When you're banking on the run we're the bank for convenience you can count on working towards the future. We're growing strong. Sun Capital Bay, we're number one. Sun Capital Bay. We're going strong. Sun Capital bank. The sun comes shining through. Gary Bybee at Allstate Insurance wants to congratulate the Dixie College Rebels on their appearance in the Junior College World Series. Good luck and thanks for a great season. For all your insurance needs, see Gary Bybee at 297 West Hilton Drive in St. George or call 628 8778. Allstate Insurance Company in southern Utah. This is the Sports Leader, KSGIAM and FM St. George Merrimack Head baseball coach Todd Whaley and coach. This has been a little while since Merrimack has been back here, but what a tradition. Yes, it's been nine years since we've been back here and we've had a pretty good stretch out of this, our 10th trip. So I feel a program that's pretty Strong for a program. I think that's second or third amongst any junior college. So the program's strong and let's hope it continues that way. You're one of the rare people you've been here both as a player, now as a coach. Yes, I was lucky in 1986 with the last team we got out here and it's just a thrill now. They got some new things around here, new stadium parts to it and upgrades of the fields. It's just, it's just a beautiful thing. I'm going to ask you, what was it feeling when you first came here as a player? Just in awe, you know, you're just in awe and getting treated like a big leaguer, you know, kids wanting you autograph, trying to take your hat, you know, can you give me this, give me that, give me this. And you know, you really don't know how to act for a couple days and then, you know, you catch on and you kind of play the role. Al's now coming back as a coach. The feeling is much different. The feeling is pretty much the same. You only get here so many times, so you just in awe. It's kind of neat to be back here and enjoy the same thing. What about your ball club this year? Good record. But you came in unranked without votes. It fellow goes back our, I guess our region or our district. It's a theme in our conference. The guy does the voting and at the times of all the votes, you know, they had beaten us and we had already beaten them in the regional play. So it's, you know, it doesn't matter. To me, it doesn't matter. You're here so you got to be doing something right. It's a double edged sword that rankings thing. If you got them, that's great. If you don't, you know, you say, hey, it's no good anyway because we don't have the opportunity to vote for ourselves. Or you know, the guy that's doing the voting, you know, he happened to be a three out of four but we beat him in the tournament. So what counts more, beating you in the regular season or beating you in the tournament? One of the things you were doing right was pitching this year. Yes, we've got some strong fitching at big times. So it's, it's been a big part of our club is that have the pitchers throw strikes and that's our main thing. Try not to walk people. That gets you in trouble all the time. If they hit it, you got a chance. So that's Kind of what we go by. Let's throw strikes. If they don't swing, we'll strike them out. If they swing, hit it, we got a chance. Starting pitcher tonight has some of the best stats in the journey. Yeah, he's a nice pitcher and let's hope he can do the same thing he's been doing all year long. What will be the key tonight for St. Louis Merrimack to get the victory? But pitching and defense, that's going to have to be the key. With the way the wind's blowing, blowing in today, all of a sudden, you know, for this last couple games, I guess now you know, so pitching and defense and, you know, you got to play under any condition. And, you know, we're not. We're not surprised by the wind because it blows in at our park quite a bit. So pitching and defense will be the biggest. Coach Todd Whaley, congratulations on a great year and best of luck today. Thank you. There. You've heard from the St. Louis Merrimack head coach Todd Whaley. We'll be back with coach Gordon Jolly after this timeout for all your lighting needs and accessories. Wilkinson's House of Lighting. At Wilkinson, big screen TVs seem to be the rage. I bought one, even though I'm opposed to tv. I guess I'm one of those people who can't pass up a good buy. We pass savings from fantastic buys on to the customer. Wilkinson's a unique place to shop. Wilkinson's a unique place to shop. The new Hampton Inn at 53 North River Road in St. George congratulates the Dixie College Rebels baseball team on their participation in the Junior College World Series. St. George's newest hotel features comfortable rooms and suites, free local phone calls, indoor pool, Jacuzzi, two premium TV channels and a deluxe breakfast buffet served each morning. Mention this ad and receive 20% off regular rates. When you need accommodations in St. George for yourself or visitors, come and enjoy the Hampton Inn. Talking with Dixie College head baseball coach Gordon Jolly. And Coach, you're back here again for a second time. What's the feeling now that you've stepped on this field? How has it changed from that first time? Well, I don't know, Larry. It's just exciting to be here. There's the 10 best junior college teams in the country, and we're one of that group. And so it's just a thrilling experience. We'll play 4, 10,000 people here tonight, and it's just great to represent the Dixie College, the state of Utah. And it's just a super feeling I have been told by many of the tournament officials the largest crowd this and Monday nights is the largest crowd to the tournament. That's great for us, you know, just hopefully we can perform. There's many scouts pro in college and I like our draw and let's just hope that we do the job we can do. They had a cheering section when you walked in. Yeah, yeah. I hope, I hope it keeps up. I hope they don't start going. Let's talk about this field. It's going to be a little cooler tonight. It's a brand new field. In terms of turf on an old field, how's that going to affect you? I don't know. We practiced, you know, here a little bit, but basically, I don't know. I'm sure it's all first class. It's all first class. You know, everything's first class. So I'm sure it'll be fine. Seems like the outfield's real slow from their previous games and it seems like the infield turf is a little bit slow, but we'll make some adjustments and I think we'll be okay tonight. Your ball club, have they been excited about this all day? Has there been much murmuring that you've heard? Oh, yeah, it's thrilling to everybody. It's just a great, you know, these guys will remember this. I'll remember it. And it's just great opportunity for these kids to be here. And I think we've got a lot of people from St. George, a lot of parents here, and this is just with baseball, you know, be rewarded for having a successful season. And we're still right in the middle of it. This is one hot ball club. You're seven and two in postseason play. That's not bad. That's not bad. We think the competition's been excellent, so we just hope we can continue. As you know, you were here and you saw some of the games previous and there's some excellent teams here, but we think we're a good team, too. So, you know, that's one thing I tell my kids. You know, never underestimate your opponent, but never underestimate yourself. And, you know, we're going to have some pregame jitters, but we've just got to get those out. And if we make an error, just forget about it and go on because I think we do have a pretty good ball club. Sounds like you're more confident this time around, coming into this tournament. Well, yes and no. You know, we were one and two and it's not too much of A confident builder. But I do like our pitching staff. And if we can get by a game or two, I think with our pitching staff, we can stay around and play a little bit. So, you know, and that's what we'd like to do. You know much about your opponents? Not much. Their pitcher is supposed to be spectacular and they've got three or four hitters are.375 around that area. But, you know, I don't know much. I'm just hoping that, you know, their hitter or their pitcher that's 11 and one doesn't overpower us. There's been a lot of home runs hit yesterday. Today the wind's blowing in. Not as many in that second game. No. And, you know, I kind of wish it was blowing out a little bit because, you know, I like our power in this game. But we'll, whatever happens, you know, we'll deal with it. That's been one of the pleasant bonuses this year for you as a power. Oh, yeah. Brad Barker and Cal Shepard have definitely been a plus. And Skeeter Ellison, you know, hits the double and the triple and, yeah, we've had a little bit of a surprise. I didn't expect that much, but. And we should get some. Quite a few extra. Well, hopefully we'll get some extra base hits in this ball game. And he takes no changes in lineup. You know, just hopefully. Jeff Garf continues to throw like he has the last two months, you know, last eight or seven or eight weeks. And if he does that, I think we have an excellent chance. Everybody healthy coming in? I know Skeeter had a little bit of full muscle problem, but that didn't show up in the district tournament. I think we're all right. Craig Smith jammed his toe, but that's been an ongoing thing for two or three weeks. But I don't think it's anything real serious. Coach Gordon Jolly, congratulations on a successful year and best of luck tonight. Well, thanks, Larry. It's thrilling just to be here and we appreciate the people in St. George listening to ball games, supporting us at Bruce Hurst Field. And, you know, we just hope we can represent Dixie College in the city of St. George. Well, there you've heard from the two coaches, that's Coach Gordon Jolly. And before you get too panicked, he was not referring to the pitcher for Utah Valley, Greg Spring. It was a Freudian slip, if you will. Craig Peterson, who is leadoff hitter and center fielder, has been suffering a little bit with a jam toe. Let's take this time out. We'll be back with the starting lineup, St. Louis Merrimack warriors and the Dixie College Rebels. After this timeout, you know a winning team when you see one. So why not see the award winning lineup of 1995 GMC trucks at your local Color Country GMC dealers. Your selection of GMC trucks is better than ever. And they're all specially priced to guarantee you excellent values on the GMC you've been wanting, like the new GMC Sierras, the Suburbans, the Jimmies and the Yukons. You'll score savings at your local Color country gmc, so visit Newby Auto center in Ridgefield, Tri State GMC in Cedar City and Newby GMC in St. George. Traditions are important. The tradition at Dixie College, the tradition of St. George, the tradition of good people all make our community what it is today. At MacArthur Jewelers in St. George we have the tradition of 45 years in business. The tradition of service to our customer, the tradition of good product at a fair market price. Over the years we've grown into two stores. Our downtown store where we've always been in business and the new mall store to better serve all our customers. Remember our name. Remember MacArthur Jewelers. A tradition in St. George. Back at Supplyzio park where we're about ready to have the introduction of the starting lineup. Let's begin with the St. Louis Merrimack Warriors. As we mentioned, this is their 10th visit. Last time was in 1986 and Dixie is now in their second visit since that time and they won the national championship back in 1970. 71. Let's lead off. Let's give you the starting lineup. There's also an introduction of introduction of the of a lot of the officials, the coaches and the players are being introduced. But let's give you the starting lineup for the Warriors. Leading off and playing left field is Mike Brown. Mike Brown is the 61200 pound freshman from St. Louis. Batting second, Steve Stalozinski who is a 59 freshman. He is playing second base. Batting second, batting third, the right fielder Mark Pier. Pier of freshman. Batting fourth, the shortstop Matt Schaffer. Schaffa, spelled C I U F F A is a sophomore. The veterans player and the leading hitter average wise on the team. Batting fifth is the catcher Jason Sheppard Shepard. The leading home run hitter this year at sophomore. Batting six, the first baseman Garen Sissel belled with his tee C I S, S E L L and batting seven, the designated hitter, Tim May. May the dh also a catcher, Mark Hannah is batting eighth and playing third base. And the number nine hitter is Chad Thorpe. The center fielder pitching today is Dave Sabota. I should say cibota. Dave Sapota, 101 record. He's a sophomore and no question he, he's the leader on the team and earned run average down to 1.86 now for Dixie. Leading up and playing center field is Craig Peterson, a freshman out of Dumont High School. Batting second, the only returning starter from last year, Scott Buggy Sudbury. The third baseman, batting third, right fielder, Brad Parker, a sophomore transfer from the University of Utah. Batting fourth, a cleanup hitter, K.L. sheppard, a left handed hitting first baseman from Utah Valley. Combatting fifth, the designated hitter, Wyatt Cloward. Cloward, freshman. Batting six, the freshman shortstop, Troy Tuttle. Batting seventh, freshman left fielder Skeeter Ellison. Batting eighth, the sophomore catcher, Brad Thorne. And batting ninth is freshman second baseman Justin Garrett. And today's starting pitcher, Jeff Garf. Garf comes into this ball game as the number one team for Dixie with a 2.96 season long earned run average and a 94 record. Although he does not have the most wins on the. In the. On the team, he's also. But he has been the leading pitcher strikeout wise until Lance Lambert passed him recently, but has had the best earned run average. Two shutouts, which equals the two that's picked up by the rest of the staff and more complete games than anyone. 11 complete games on the year. Let's take this time out as there is the introduction of the coaches for the region championships and also for the tournament. I should say the tournament committee who has helped put this thing together. We'll be back after this timeout and recap what has already taken place in this Junior College World Series. Back after this. Ah, the luxuries of the modern world. Instant soup, instant breakfast, instant cash. And now even instant financing. Now with Big old Tires, you can get instant financing with the exclusive credit card, the Big Card. Choose from low monthly payments or six months, same as cash. With the Big Card, instant credit means no hassle. Your application is processed while you wait, so don't wait any longer. Get your big card today at Big Old Tires, a reputation you can ride on. A lot of things I like and a few I love. 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Come by and see our friendly staff at Mountain America Credit Union, 301 East Tabernacle in St. George. And our national anthem. Better yet, rain for the land of the free and the home of the free. There you have the national anthem. The presentation of the national anthem as you can plainly hear in the background. It is the wind is blowing out of the right field corner. It's not going to help anything. It's hit up into the air. A line drive might still get out of here right field, but if you get it up into the air, it's going to be held up. It may be helped a little bit if you hit it towards left field and it might hook it towards the line a little bit. So there's a possibility of having some advantage that way. But right now the flag raised by scout troop in center field while that was taking place blowing straight in from center field. Now let's take a look at what's taken place so far in this tournament we mentioned. These are the final 10 teams of the Junior College Division 1 Series. Middle Georgia, former national champ. In fact several times a former national champ came in and in game number one ended up getting dumped by Allegheny College. Allegheny coming out of the east and a lot of people have been suspect out of the east figuring that those, those records are inflated because of a lack of competition. But no case this, this time Allegheny dumping Middle Georgia by a 6 to 5 margin last yesterday the huge huge ball game as Odessa needed a full 10 innings to defeat Indian Hill 16 to 15 in what proved to be a slug fest. Odessa moving into the championship bracket with Allegheny. Then in the third game yesterday, Volunteer State, a team that is one of the surprise teams coming in. Volunteer State who had the biggest margin of victory in their district championship, defeated Triton of Illinois by a 10 to 4 margin. And then in the late game, the team that A lot of the Dixie kids feel as the team to beat as Indian river defeated seminole by an 11 to 5 margin. Seminole is making its 10th appearance in the juco but had not won a ball game in their five previous years. Actually in their four previous years and last night made it five in a row that they had not won a ball game. Well, in the elimination games earlier today, Middle Georgia defeated Indian hills by a 15 to 5 margin. And so Indian Hills out of Iowa is gone. Dixie will not have to worry about them that one. Let me double check and see how the innings went. They went a full nine innings, 15 to 5 was the final score and Seminole pulled out a 9 to 4 victory over Triton. They jumped out early on Triton and then held off Triton. So Triton Illinois, the team that produced Kirby Puckett, Lands Johnson and others, is out of this tournament. In fact the team that finished second in each of the last two years. Let's take this. Well, we're about ready to get underway. Let's continue on. Now we're ready with the first batter as Craig Pyder. Peterson. Craig Peterson will be at the plate. Let's take a look at the lineup defensively for St. Louis. Meramec on the mound is Dave Sabota, behind the plate is Jason Shepard, over at first base is Darren Sissel. The second baseman is Steve Stalazinski. The shortstop Mike Schaffer and the third baseman is Mark Hanock. Middle of the outfield, left to right is Mike Brown in left. The center fielder is Chad Thorpe and the right fielder is Mark Pier. And as we mentioned, Sabota on the mound. Sabota, outstanding pitcher, comes into this tournament with a 101 record. He has started 12 games. He has finished 10 of them and has lost but one. So that tells you the type of record this young man has. Sabota 1.86 earned run average coming in a correction 1.56 better than I thought. Craig Peterson, the only man who's really injured for Dixie with his sore foot to lead things off. Left handed hitting center fielder. First pitch, low ball one. Sobota starting, starts things off with a pitch inside. Sabota good easy motion into the wind, up right hander, comes to the plate, chopped to the plate, fouled, fouled once. Fouled twice. It fouled down into the turf and as it came back up, hit the follow through of Craig Peterson. So he actually fouled it twice. No, you don't get two strikes on that one. All those boater would like to. There was a cheer when Dixie College came into the field. They had been at an adjacent field taking batting practice. But down that third baseline, that one's going to go foul right towards Gordon Jolly. Over is the third baseman, Hanock to grab that one. So it's a 12 count to Craig Peterson leading off the first inning. A change in this ball game, in this tournament. It is a nine inning ballgame each time you step on the field. But there are 10 and eight rules, except in the championship. Sabota, the right hander for St. Louis Merrimack, known as Merrimack College until recently. The pitch misses ball two, two, two count. We are just about midway between first and home plate, high up above the stands, so we're about face on with the pitcher's mouth. 22 pitch to Peterson. Chopped down that first baseline. That one's going to be fair all the way. And the first baseman is going to tag out Peterson. So Peterson grounds out to the first baseman unassisted. Darren Sissel handling that one well enough. And coming to the plate is Scott Sudbury. Buggy Sudbury went into a slump in the district championship and broke out of it in the last game as he reached base in all but one try. Drove in four runs, had a double and a home run in that final game, that championship game against Arizona Western. First pitch by Sabota, misses inside. Ball one one. Oh, count. Looks like the strike. Strike zone may be just a little tight tonight. Sabota into the wind, up to the plate, fastball up and away. That one's no question. Brad Barker waiting on deck, then KL Sheppard. The usual starting lineup for Dixie, no changes. The last game of the second day of this JUCO tournament. The pitch head in the air towards second base and back into the outfield grass. Going back is Tenosinski fading and drops the baseball. Heard the right fielder coming, had to pop into his glove and pop right back out. So on by way of the error is Sudbury. Bucky Sudbury kept running and should have been an easy one, but the wind held it up. Stanisinski had it all the way. Just looked away as the ball hit his glove because he could hear the right fielder, Mark Pierre coming. So on by way of the error is Buggy Sudbury and Sabota as a little bit instead of two men out, has a man out and a man on. And Brad Parker at the plate, wide open stance. Dixie with New Jersey tops all red with white numerals. The pitch call strike to Brad Parker. Parker, especially against a brand new pitcher, is not immune to taking the first pitch. Good crowd Not a pack house yet, but it's still growing. Brad Parker, leading home run hitter and RBI man for Dixie. Pick off over a first. Good move by Sabota back into Sudbury. Dave Sabota, starting pitcher, the ace of the staff for St. Louis Merrimack into the stretch. Sabota comes to the plate. Breaking pitch, misses high and outside 1 1. Brad Parker, if he gets it up into the air, is not going to be helped by any wind at all. If he gets it out of here, he's got to hit a line drive. But Parker, not that much of a long fly ball hitter. Although he's hit a few. Like that pitch called strike on that outside corner. So one, two, count to Brad Parker. Cale shepherd waiting on deck. Parker, the number two man in RBIs in this postseason play. Number one man in home runs. He's hit four of his 18 home runs since the regular season ended. Swung on and missed on the slow curveball. Strike three. So Parker goes down, two men out and Kale Shepard coming to the plate. Cale shepherd, left handed hitter, comes in hitting 4:12 on the year. 12 home runs, 63 runs batted in. The only other man in double figures in home runs for dixie. Parker with 18, shepherd with 12. Sabota, a right handed hitting a right handed pitcher for St. Louis Merrimack. The pitch. Slow curveball, chased and missed. Strike one. Sinking curveball. Shepherd tried to time it and swung above it and out in front of it. Wyatt Cloud waiting on deck. So Zobota, no question why he is the outstanding pitcher for St. Louis Merrimack. He changes feet. Well, fastball swung on and missed. Strike two. So he just threw that one by Shepard. So the slow breaking pitch to begin things. Then the heat. Oh, two count on KL Sheppard shepherd. Huge district or region tournament fastball. Jeff misses inside. Ball 1, 1, 2 count. St. Louis Merrimack making their first appearance since 1986. Dixie making only their second appearance ever in this tournament. The pitch. Fastball hit on the ground towards the second baseman Stanisinski. Stavosinski grabs it after he juggles it a little bit and throws the man out of first base. So Shepard hit it hard on the ground in that inning. No runs, no hits, one error and a man left. And at the end of a half inning of play, Dixie without a score. St. Louis Merrimack to try their hand against Jeff Garf after this timeout. Sony Quality Electronics and the Boulevard Home furnishings. Your camcorder headquarters invite you to camcorder it. That's right. Your prize winning rose Bush, the winning home team, the children and the sprinklers. The home of your dreams. Save the memories with the Sony camcorder and Camcorder. The Boulevard is your camcorder headquarters with Southern Utah's largest selection and lowest prices guaranteed and a service department to service what they sell. When you're looking for the best selection in prices on the best brands, there's no place like the Boulevard. Expert Beauty Salon Service at beauty school prices. That's what you get at Evans Hairstyling College. They're located at 995 East Tabernacle. Drop by and set your appointment. Call 673-6128 and watch for registration at Evans Hairstyling College in St. George. Jeff Cuff on the mound for Dixie College. No score on the top of the first inning for Dixie, although they did have the man get on board by way of the Arrow Sabota Making things look easy the first time through on his opening inning, Jeff Garf has been a little wild at times in the first inning. He has had some odd patterns this year. Garf at times has been easy to get to early and then settles down and gets strong. And then at times he started off strong and has had a little shakiness during the middle part of the game and then finishes strong. And at times he's had to hang on after a couple of little blurbs midway through the ballgame. But he's done well. Well enough to have a 9 and 4 record, 2.96 earned run average. It's not as gaudy as that 1.56 that Dave Sabota has, but still it's not a bad record. Jeff Garf, 6 foot 4 inch freshman right hander. Strikeout to walk ratio. We've mentioned that before, 72 to 31 is excellent, but also leads the team in being in hitting batters with 17, so he's not afraid to come inside and the curveball sometimes gets the batters leaning a little bit because they anticipate the curve and it doesn't break and bingo. Mike Brown comes in leading off for St. Louis Merrimack. There's Park Place and also florissant as the St. Louis Community College triumvirate there. There are three schools in the St. Louis area who are part of the system. St. Louis Community College System Mike Brown leading things off right handed hitting left fielder, usual defense for Dixie and usual offense to pitch misses inside ball one to Mike Brown. Stalozinski Mark Pierre do up after Brown. Mike Brown back in the batter's box straightaway stance Strong right handed hitter, lead off hitter, A one oh pitch call strike on that outside corner. So Garf versus Brown, bottom half the first inning. Garf has had a string of complete games. We mentioned 11. If he gets the one today, he's going to have to go a full nine innings in kind of cool weather. Garf to the play. Pitch low and in the dirt. Ball two, two, one count. Garf cannot afford to spend too much time pitching, throwing extra pitches. He expects to go the full nine innings. Two, one, pitch called ball outside, just misses. We mentioned we thought it was going to be a tight strike zone and apparently it's going to be. It seemed to be that way for Sabota. 31 count to lead the off hitter, Mike Brown. Jeff Garf trying to come back against Brown. The pitch called ball just misses. Brad Thorne holds it there and it's ball four. So the leadoff man is on. And St. Louis Merrimack now with the chance to make some hay against Dixie right off the bat, win or lose, will be on the air Tuesday. If Dixie loses, it's midday. If they win, it's late in the evening. Into the at third base, Scott Sudbury anticipating a possible bunt. The pitch hit on the ground hard into right field. So base hit by Stalozinski. Brad Parker up and ready to throw somebody out. Throws behind the runner. It's a walk and a base hit and suddenly the first two batters are on and Jeff Garf, surprise, surprise, Belozinski going to right field with that solid ground ball. Actually it was a line drive as it went past the second baseman and the first baseman and then hit the ground. So the number three hitter is up, nobody out top at bottom of the first inning and Mark Pierre, the right handed hitting right fielder at the plate. St. Louis Merrimack with their wind that has a tendency to blow in, does not hit a lot of home runs. But Mark Pier is the number two man in home runs. He has seven of them on the air. Slightly open stance and at first and second creeping in as the first and third baseman call strike on that outside corner. So Garf will have to work his way out of a sticky situation in the bottom of the first. Nobody out first. Two batters on. One Garf put there, the other one earned it on coach Todd Whaley over at third base with signals breaking. Pitch lifted into the air to left field. Skeeter Ellison looking right into that sun as that is the sun field. But he's used to that and the wind playing some tricks out there until the ball Players get used to it. Ellison in shallow left field. That's one man out. Coming to the plate now, Matt Sheppa. Sheppa has been the leading hitter on the year at.379. Has some power. Four home runs. Leading double man, 19 on the year. And let me double check, maybe the leading RBI man. Nope. Tied for second in RBIs behind Shepherd. The catcher still minute first and second. In at first base is Shepard. Pitch up and in ball one. Jason Shepard waiting on deck. So St. Louis Merrimack without all that much power. Comparatively, the second lowest home run total of teams in this tournament. A pitch fastball on that outside corner. Strike one. One one count. So we mentioned the second lowest home run total among teams in the tournament. Only Indian river of Florida with fewer. But Indian river looked impressive in their first game. Garp fakes the throw at second base. Back in easily is the man down at second. That's Mike Brown. Speed up rules are required as the pitcher bats for himself and the catcher always will be replaced by a runner. Pitch hit off the end of the bat, skipping the rope. Down at first base is the coach the assistant coach for the Warriors. And is strike two. One, two. Count on Matt Schuffer. Jeff Garf has enough fastball to run it by some people, although he's not really considered a power pitcher, does have some power aspects. The key for Garf is that big curve ball to set that up. Infield is back. Shepard is back now with two strikes on the hitter. The pitch fastball hit on the ground, backhanded by Shepherd. Shepard is going to get it unassisted at first and everybody moves up 90ft. So good play by Shepherd. Down at first base to get the second out. On at third base is Brown. On at second is Stalaszynski. And coming to the place, Jason Shepard. Sheppard, not bad hitter.326 on the year, but he has the power stats. He has eight home runs on the year and leads in RBIs with 40 coming into this tournament. Jason Shepard finished the regular season tied for the home run leadership, but hit one in that Colby Kansas, best two out of three. Garth into the stretch even with man at second and third. First pitch called strike. Jason shepherd, bottom of the first inning. Segarp has lost. He's no hitter, which he did throw one this year, but it wasn't one of his two shutouts. He's trying not to lose a shutout too. At this point. His victory did not score in the top half of the first inning. Garf looking down at Brad Thorne. Likes the Sign now into the stretch. The breaking pitch misses inside one. One count umpire. We get a little bit of a delay call on, but not much of what beautiful field, Supplisio Park. Grand Junction has had a minor league professional team here at times, but not now. Fastball hit up to the middle into center field. That's going to bring in one run. Maybe a second is going to die in center. So Craig Peterson will not have a chance. So a two run single by Sheppard and yes, there's a bunch of St. Louis fans here too. And it's two nothing right off the bat. So Shepard hits the ball hard right up the middle and Brown and Stylusinski score. And those are both earned runs. So Jeff Garf down to nothing immediately. There has been some slugging in this tournament. Shepard will have a pinch runner. Let's see if we can get the number down there. Number eight. That looks like Bob Wilkins. Wilkins to pinch run for shepherd on the designated runner rule. Shepard the catcher of course. So Bob Wilkins over at first base and at the plate. Left handed hitting Darren Sissel. Pick off, over at first base, back in as Wilkins. So Garf got the ground ball. It was hit hard, but it was not pulled. It was hit right up the middle and Garf had no chance of getting it. So Garf may have to struggle. The pitch called ball just misses low. So Garfield with a struggle in the first inning, do nothing. St. Louis Merrimack out on top of Dixie College here in the bottom of the first inning. Garf into the stretch, looks over at first, Pick off, back in is Wilkins. Good move. Garf has a good move. Lambert has a good move. Garf has an excellent move to first base for a right hander. Very athletic. He was also a quarterback in high school. Garth able to move his feet. The pitch fouled at the plate and that one may have hit the front foot of Sissel. 11 count to Darren Sissel. Tim May the designated hitter waiting on deck. So St. Louis Merrimack with a walk, a base hit, the ground ball that got the runners up. And that was a great piece of hitting by Matt Sheffa. If he can't get the base hit, at least get the runners along. And then the two run single by shepherd. Takeoff over at first. Bounces beyond the first baseman. Over against the fence. Turning second is Wilkins. He's going to try for third. Shepherd to make the throw right there, slides in, tags himself out. So Shepard, who is a sometimes pitcher, throws a bullet to third base. So the error gets the man to second. The throw by shepherd from three to five gets the man out. So in that inning, two runs on two base hits, an error and nobody left on base. This will come up in the second inning. So at the end of one complete inning of play, two nothing. Dixie out in front or correction. St. Louis Merrimack out in front over Dixie back after this timeout. Sign up today for Con Net Cellular's free weekend of phone calls for two months. That means you can place and receive calls on your Con Net Cellular phone at no charge during specified weekend hours of midnight Friday through 11:59pm Sunday. The offer is available for a limited time. Find out the details today at COMENET Cellular, call 6282002 or see them at 370 W. St. George Blvd. Con Net Cellular. For quality and lasting excellence, protect your concrete investment with decoseal number one in customer service and beautiful concrete coatings others try to imitate. But there's only one true deco seal call 674-2222. Today. Leading off the top of the second inning, Dixie down 2 0. Wyatt Cloud, the designated hitter pitch outside ball one. Cloud, right handed hitter, slowly but surely took over that DH job that he had alternated with Jamon Taylor earlier in the year. But Cloud started to hit with a little more power pitch chopped at the plate and bounced up and hit Cloward in the helmet just below the just away from the cheek. Hit that right flap of the mask of the helmet and almost got him in the cheek. So we saw that happen with Peterson. We saw it happen with St. Louis. Merrimack layer breaking pitch hip to left field. There goes the no hitter as a line single to begin things. Cloud starts things off with a single, just reaches out and spanks that one to left field. So leadoff runner is a hitter is on and Troy Tuttle coming to the plate. Tuttle who has been hitting with a little more enthusiasm as the season has gone on, Although he didn't have a particularly good average, wise district tournament comes in hitting 274. He started down in the low two hundreds this year. Freshman shortstop. The pitch by Tuttle line to right field, is that going to go foul? It is as he went the other way and just drifted foul. So there's a group of Fans here for St. Louis, no question, but there's also a group of fans here for Dixie, no question there either and apparently we have some flags from the different states being represented. Also I just noticed that behind home plate at the top of the stand one one count to Troy to oh. One count to Troy Tuttle the pitch. Breaking pitch. Call strike two. Oh, two count. So Dixie trying to get something started after St. Louis generated two runs. St. Louis Merrimack in the bottom of the first. Top of the second inning. Sabota gives up the leadoff single. Pick off, over at first, back in his cloud. Good snap tag by Sissel. Thistle throws it by the pitcher coming back, but the third baseman has it. Right now, the sun's getting kind of low and the pitcher is kind of in the daylight, and the batter is in the shade. The pitch. Fastball misses outside. One, two count. No question about it, Sabota can bring it. His fastball is a good fastball. Good solid fastball. The sophomore to the plate. Breaking pitch, misses outside and high ball 2, 2, 2 count. So some of the best pitching goes out the first day, and we've had some of the huge, huge scores. It's been the second line pitching that's done a little bit better in the tournament, and it distracts the boda to the flight. Fastball outside, and it's a three, two count. The count is full to Troy Tuttle. Tuttle has a little bit of a penchant for striking out. The question is, does coach Gordon Jolly start Wyatt Cloud? Anyway, Tuttle slightly open stance, has been hitting the ball to all fields. More 3, 2 pitch to cuddle. Swung on and missed. Strike three as he chased one that is marginal on that outside corner. Second strikeout of the day for Sabota. Coming to the plate now, Skeeter Ellison. Ellison, who was held a little bit in check in the region championship, just exploded in the district tournament, had three home runs in postseason play.