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Kearns • Pine View's Dakota Donovan couldn't have imagined a better way to end his storied high school career.

The Panther star batted in three runs and pitched the final two innings, striking out the last two batters, to lead his St. George team to a 4-3 victory over Region 9 rival Cedar City and its second straight Class 3A championship.

"There is no better way to finish it out," said the Pine View star, who has committed to play college ball at Oregon State. "When we got the lead, I knew I would be coming in to pitch. I wanted to pitch the whole game, but they had other ideas."

Cedar City lost three games to the Panthers this season and the state championship game a year ago. The Iron County team needed a tough win earlier in the day against cross-town rival Canyon View just to get to the title game. And the underdogs were playing with star hitter Ryker Tom hobbled with a torn hamstring.

But Cedar City gave Pine View all it wanted.

Kyler Carrizosa gave Cedar City a 1-0 lead in the first inning and the underdogs led 3-2 after four innings when Bracken Yardley singled in a run and Brock Oldroyd scored on a fielder's choice.

But Donovan and Pine View did not want to play a second game.

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth, Donovan slammed a single that scored what proved to be the winning two runs.

"That was my last career at-bat and, to end it like that is truly amazing," he said. "I can't even explain it. I am still shocked."

At that point, Pine View coach Troy Wall replaced starter Cole Green with Donovan for the final two innings.

"He is kind of our guy," said Wall. "That is no secret. I wanted him in the game a lot earlier, but we kept telling him that we had to have the lead. Once he got the lead, I was pretty confident he would do his job."

Cedar City coach Eric Fieldsted, whose team battled to even get into the tournament and was in the title game all the way, had nothing but praise for Donovan.

"He is good," said Fieldsted. "He was the MVP last year for a reason. He competes. But I was pleased with the way my guys played and responded. We worked our butts off to get here. We were not supposed to be in the tournament and to be the last team out is a proud moment for us."

Donovan had nothing but praise for Pine View's rivals.

"Cedar is an amazing team," he said. "We struggled with them the last four years."

Twitter @tribtomwharton —

Storylines

R Pine View's Dakota Donovan has three RBIs and pitches the final two innings to give the Panthers their second straight state title.

• Cedar City beats Canyon View in an earlier game in the rain-delayed tournament but comes up just short against Pine View.