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PROVO — Kash Kabonic is just a sophomore for the Kanab Cowboys baseball team, but he played like a seasoned veteran on Saturday as Kanab captured the 2A state title in a 10-2 victory over the South Sevier Rams.
Following a dominant performance at the plate in the semifinal round against the Rams, where he went 3-for-4 with four runs batted in, Kabonic received the call to take the mound in his team's most important game of the year.
"I found out last night at 10:30," Kabonic said about when he learned he'd be starting the championship game. "Coach told us to go to bed at 10, so I didn't open the message. So he knew that I was asleep, but I was awake."
All the sophomore did was come out and pitch 6 1/3 innings, where he allowed just three hits and two earned runs to one of the top offenses in all of 2A this season. Though things got off to a rocky start, at one point Kabonic retired eight Rams batters in a row before allowing a walk and then getting the next batter out.
"To hold the No. 1 team to a couple hits, a couple runs, it's unbelievable," said Kanab head coach Craig Brinkerhoff. "And he's only a sophomore, and he's only had a couple of varsity innings all year. We just felt like he was gonna be our guy with how he performed this tournament. So we thought we can hand him the ball and he can get it done for us."
Despite Kabonic's strong pitching, the Kanab offense got off to a slow start and missed some early opportunities to take a lead. In both the first and third innings, the Cowboys loaded the bases — in the third they were loaded with no outs — but the team managed one run thanks to a bases-loaded walk from Kabonic himself.
In the fourth inning, the Cowboys scratched across a couple more runs to hold a slim 3-2 lead over the Rams, but it wasn't until the sixth inning that Kanab found some life and broke the game wide open.
The Cowboys' top of the order was up against South Sevier's Kanyon Okerlund. Two walks and a bloop single loaded the bases for one of Kanab's best hitters, Griffen Bone, the whole year. Bone found his pitch and unloaded a huge double deep over the left fielder's head that cleared the bases and put the Cowboys ahead for good.
When all was said and done in the inning, Kanab had sent 13 players to the plate and scored seven runs to increase the lead to 10-2, where it remained until the final out.
"We just got the momentum, keep the energy; it was good," Bone said about his hit and Kanab's big inning. "We didn't swing at bad pitches, just took the good pitches and drove them. Honestly, just drove the baseball."
After the Cowboys' big inning, Kabonic continued his control over the game and nearly pitched a complete game before having to be removed in the bottom of the seventh due to pitch count restraints. Kanab's Ryan East came in, struck out the first batter he faced and induced a game-ending popout, and the Cowboys were champions.
"These guys just played their heart out," Brinkerhoff said. "I was just telling these guys the last two weeks we played the toughest schedule — went through the gauntlet — and these guys answered the call. 'You guys wanted to play, you guys want to win, and we're a young team, so I think it's going to get better from here.' But these guys played their hearts out the past two weeks, bought in."
