| John Renshaw •
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• Published: March 20. 2011 4:55AM | ST. GEORGE - Danny Ipson is no stranger to Dixie Flyers baseball.
An assistant coach of 14 years, Ipson is now at the helm of the 4A program. While there are different nuances to being the head coach, the overall goal still remains the same: develop good character players and win as many games as possible.
Dixie's coming off a subpar 2010 campaign, which is a not ideal for the usually successful club. Ipson didn't want to overhaul the philosophical traditions just because he's now the dugout leader, rather he looks to keep the same aggressive principles that has made Dixie successful.
And it's working as Dixie improved to 6-2 after defeating Murray, 11-7 at Flyers Field in the Dixie Sunshine Tournament on Saturday.
"We're swinging the bats well right now," said Ipson, who helped organize the weekend tournament. "The positive is today (Saturday) we swung them well a lot earlier than in our previous games. That's what we want to see from our guys."
As a whole, Ipson said Dixie's tournament was successful, but quickly adds a lot of the credit goes to the parents and volunteers.
As for on the field, Dixie clung to a 4-2 lead over Murray in the top of the third inning. Pitcher Beauden Goodwin was in a jam after walking Cam Howe to load the bases for the Spartans.
But like many other times in the game, Murray couldn't execute with the bags loaded.
Goodwin dug deep and struck out the ensuing batter, Kyle Canham, then popped out Zach Hardman to end the Spartans inning.
Dixie blew the game open in the bottom half, scoring four runs on two hits that had Murray right hander Justice Leiter looking for answers.
Dixie sophomore Jesse Lambert led the run with a double to right field as Murray outfielder Jordan Nickle misplayed the ball.
Teammates Mackenzie Peterson and Caden Hammil drew back-to-back walks to load the bases for Braxton Ipson, who drove in home a run after being hit by a pitch.
Just moments later and Dixie leading 6-2, Goodwin's crushing two-run homer topped the game-changing inning.
"It was a fastball high and I was able to turn on it quickly," said Goodwin, who is the team's leadoff hitter. "I think that's been the biggest difference for me this season compared to last is my ability to see pitches better."
Dixie added three more runs in the fourth, highlighted by Hammil's two-run dinger to left off of Leiter.
Murray did make it more competitive with four runs in the sixth and one in the seventh. Yet Cam Howe's seventh-inning double-play with the bases loaded concluded Murray's rally.
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