By DAVE BELCHER
Moapa Valley Progress
What an opening week it was for the Moapa Valley High School baseball team! The Pirates travelled to the Tiger-Panther classic in Hurricane and St George Utah where they played in the tournament championship game and came home with as runner up in the tournament.
On Thursday, the team played the Kanab Cowboys winning 7-1.
On Friday the Pirates played Hurricane and beat the Tigers 8-2. The Tigers started the game with two runs in the top of the first inning. The Pirates followed with two runs in the bottom of the third when Coby Longman doubled in Hunter Wrenzinski and Rylan Evans who had reached base just prior to Longman’s double.
The score stayed tied until the next inning when the Pirates scored six runs for a big lead.
The Tiger pitching gave up a walk, single, walk, single another walk en route to the big Pirate inning.
Friday Moapa played a second game facing Richfield. In that game, the Pirates were beaten 7-4. Richfield took a 2-0 lead in the third inning and added two more runs in the fifth for a 4-0 lead.
Moapa Valley cut that lead in half after Luke Bennett singled and stole second. Chase Hadley and Bennett also scored with help from an error by the Richfield first baseman.
Richfield added a couple more runs in the bottom of the sixth for a 6-2 lead. Moapa Valley scored twice in the top of the seventh followed by another Richfield run for the final 7-4.
Saturday Moapa played in St George at Pineview for the title where they lost to the Panthers 6-3.