Panthers run away with 1A State Baseball Championship

The Pahranagat Valley High School baseball team played its best baseball at the right time this season, finishing the year on a 12-game win streak en route to the 1A State Baseball Championship at Smith Valley, Saturday, May 16. The Panthers took down the tournament hosts with a 5-1 victory over the Bulldogs.

Senior pitchers Jesse Stewart and Todd Hansen combined to allow just one earned run on five hits and seven walks. Hansen struck out four and was 2-for-3 with an RBI and run scored. Classmate Colin Howard had three hits, two RBI, a stolen base and a run scored. 

“They really played well, and while I agree they hit the ball really well – we hit the ball well up and down our lineup – the real growth came on the defensive end,” said PVHS head coach Adam Lytle. The Panthers committed just one fielding error in the championship game, while the Bulldogs committed four.

Pahranagat Valley didn’t get much resistance in the previous rounds of the state playoffs. On Friday, May 15, the Panthers pummeled the Liberty Baptist Knights 10-0. It was the Panthers’ third postseason win over LBA in eight days. 

PVHS took care of Mineral County in four innings, 19-4, on Thursday, May 14. The Serpents slithered out to a 3-1 lead after one inning of play, but the Panthers plated six in the second, three in the third and nine in the fourth inning.

Stewart hit a grand slam, and fellow senior Flint Higbee pitched two innings allowing one earned run and doubled in a run. Howard drove in two runs with a hit and would later score. Trevor Thiriot also drove in two runs with a single and scored twice. Sophomore Bronson Fiatoa stole three of the team’s six bases, singled and scored three runs. 

It was Pahranagat Valley’s seventh State Baseball Championship, but first of Lytle’s tenure and the program’s first since 2017. After missing out on State last season and bowing out in the semifinals the year before, this senior class of Hansen, Higbee, Stewart, Thiriot, Howard and Carlos Flores didn’t let the past impact the present. Now it’ll be Braxten Tsosie’s team, as the lone senior projected for next year’s squad.

“We peaked and dominated in all three areas – hitting, defense and pitching. The seniors led and carried us. Every one of them will be sorely missed,” Lytle said. “I have very high hopes and aspirations for next year and the upcoming years. Overall, it was the best way to end a great season.”