All season long, the Bingham Miners baseball team has been steadily moving up the ladder in Region 2. 

Truth be told, the non-league portion of the schedule was more or less break-even. 

As the Miners entered league play though, they won three in a row: they swept Copper Hills in a three-game series, got one win out of three versus Corner Canyon and started a three-game set with Mountain Ridge on Tuesday April 23, winning that first game, too. 

All told, Bingham [11-9, 5-2 Region 2] is off to its best start in two years, thanks to the always-reliable Kam Beck who last year ended the season as a 6A Honorable Mention and came into this year looking for even more from himself. 

Well, Beck has nearly equaled his totals from last year [4 home runs, 19 RBI] and should surpass it by the time this series is over with Mountain Ridge. Junior Talon Van Sickle has been another vital piece to the puzzle for Bingham; he too has already exceeded his totals from last season [1 HR, 9 RBI]. 

Others like junior Dylan Frank [1 HR, 4 RBI] and freshman Alex Dabo [1 HR, 4 RBI] have also packed a punch at the plate. Seniors Abraham Atencio and Tyson McBride probably look awfully familiar from the football team—but they’ve also contributed mightily for the Miners. 

Atencio’s three triples and 18 runs that he’s driven in give Bingham another dimension; so does the athletic McBride, who in a fairly similar role to his defensive back position on the football field, mans the outfield in baseball parlance. McBride is, of course, a member of Utah football royalty but he’s also lethal with that bat, having already hit 18 RBI. 

Junior Bauer Williams is behind the plate and has also had a productive season; his 15 RBI put him near the top of Bingham’s players as well. 

On the pitcher’s mound stands senior Hayden Visser. More or less considered the Miners’ ace, Visser has a 4-1 record thus far and has tossed 19 strikeouts. Junior Boston Snyder has a 2-1 record with 25 strikeouts on the season that included a 6-2 win over Corner Canyon where he had 7 K’s on the afternoon of Friday, April 19. 

Senior Austin Wheeler is Bingham’s big lefty; he has a 1-1 record on the season and fanned six Corner Canyon batters in a 1-3 loss on Wednesday, April 17. In all, the Miners have a fairly small pitching staff; they’ve played about a half-dozen kids over the first 17 games. 

Of course, keep in mind that there’s still lots of baseball left to be played under veteran head coach Joey Sato, who may reach his 450th win by the time the Miners are headed to the 6A state tournament in mid-May. 

By the time you read this, the Miners will have completed the three-game series with Mountain Ridge and started another three-gamer against rival Herriman. 

After that, it’s the crosstown rivalry versus Riverton. Ironically, the Miners sit atop the Region 2 standings in a three-way tie for first with the Silverwolves and Corner Canyon at 5-2. One has to think that some of that puzzle will be solved by the time the Bingham-Riverton showdown goes down May 1, 3 and 7. 

The UHSAA RPI has Bingham firmly in the upcoming 6A state tourney as the No. 7 ranked team; the only real question is whether the Miners can hang onto what would be a first-round bye and perhaps even host a Super Regional. 

With a team that has nine seniors but is absolutely loaded with juniors who returned from last year’s version that got out of the Super Regional but failed to advance past 6A Bracket Play, there is a lot of experience here. λ