Allison Eliason 

Coming down the stretch of their final games for the 2024 season, the Malad baseball team split their games as they claimed the win against Bear Lake before taking the loss against Snake River.  Through it all, Head Coach Bo Clark said, “Even in some of our losses there have been a lot of positives to take away from the games.”

The Dragons were nothing short of dominating as they faced the Bears on the road.  Dawsyn Peterson, Malad’s first batter, got on base after getting hit by the pitch, converting his on base opportunity into a score as Brady Showell hit a ground ball to shortstop.  On the next play, Ky Willie, courtesy runner for Carter Blaisdell, added another run as Easton Green was up at bat.

Showell, on the mound for the Dragons, pulled together a series of stellar pitches to strike out two batters in addition to the out at first base after a dropped third strike to begin the Bears scoreless streak.

Back to hitting, Malad had a little help getting on base from the Bear Lake pitcher as Sawyer Poulson was walked on and Cale Briggs was hit by a pitch.  The Dragon runners made the most of their on base opportunities, making their around to home as Peterson was up to bat.  Taking advantage of a wild pitch and another passed ball, Malad found themselves up by two more runs.

The Dragons forced another score no run inning on the Bears, getting the first out as first baseman Hubbard got the assist from Showell.  Showell struck out the remaining two batters, throwing strikes on six of eight
pitches.

The third inning proved to be a fast inning as both teams quickly collected three outs.  But moving into the fourth inning, Malad began putting up runs just as quickly.  Getting on base with a grounder to left field, Hubbard scored the first run of the inning as Poulson hit a single to center field.  Ready to score another run, Poulson stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and then scored on another bad pitch.  Briggs, walked on base after the score, added another run to the tally on the next play as Peterson hit a single line drive to right field to extend their lead to 7-0.

The Malad defense easily shut down Bear Lake as they went to bat in the bottom of the fourth, striking out the first batter in three pitches, forcing the out at first after a ground hit to the mound, and then tagging out a pickoff attempt at first.

Moving through the fifth inning, Cael Seamons and Brycen Howe punched in two more for the Dragons with Peterson putting up the final scoring run in the sixth inning to put them up 10-0.  The Bears had one final chance at a scoring run in the bottom of the sixth, but Malad strung together three flawless outs to end the game.

“We went to Bear Lake and just flat out played really well,” shared Head Coach Bo Clark.  He continued, “Bear Lake is a really young team that played to our advantage as well.”  The Bears may have provided opportunities to make hits, run the bases and eventually score, but the MHS baseball team did the work to convert those opportunities into points on the scoreboard.

 Their next game proved to be a greater challenge as the Dragons were hosted by the Snake River Panthers on Monday, April 29.  The Panthers jumped to a quick lead, getting up 4-0 in the bottom of the first inning.  Tacking on another run in the second and two in the fourth, Malad found themselves down 0-7 as they stepped to the plate in the top of the fifth.

Poulson was first to put up a base hit, sending a hard ground ball to second base.  Two down the lineup, Howe was walked on base on a 4-2 count.  After a second out, Peterson singled on a grounder to shortstop to load the bases.  Patiently waiting on third, Poulson took a risk, stealing home and sliding in for the first Dragon run of the game.

With the momentum turning their way, Malad succinctly punched in five more runs.  Blaisdell hit a fly ball to second base, batting in Howe and Peterson.  Showell followed with another hit to the shortstop to send Jensen in for the run.  He was followed at the plate by Green to punch in Blaisdell and a final run by Showell as Hubbard hit a grounder to third base to put them down by one, 6-7.

The Malad defense held Snake River scoreless in the bottom of the fifth inning, giving them a real chance for a comeback.  But the chance slipped through their collective “glove” as the Panthers added eight runs to their score in the bottom of the sixth.  Going scoreless in the top of the seventh, the Dragons fell 6-15.

The MHS baseball team has one final game to play before they will begin their district postseason games.  They look to play the Cardinals in Soda Springs on Wednesday, May 1.