St. George • When the Desert Hills baseball team stepped off the field in last season’s 4A state championship game, it was in crushing defeat at the hands of Dixie High. But a year later, almost to the day, the Thunder got their sweet payback.
The Thunder won the 2019 4A title with a resounding 16-3 victory in five innings over the Flyers on Tuesday afternoon at Dixie State University. Dixie beat Desert Hills last year by a narrow 1-0.
For the Thunder, seniors Bronson Andrus and Drew Thorpe drove in eight runs combined and led their team to an easy victory. Three different Dixie players picked up RBIs in the game.
Dixie rallied back from a loss earlier in the 4A tournament to end up in the championship game from the losers’ bracket. It beat Lehi, Spanish Fork and Salem Hills to advance.
The Thunder, meanwhile, rolled through the entire tournament and were never really threatened. Their most contested games came against Spanish Fork and Salem Hills, which each lost by three runs to Desert Hills.