Bingham senior Shyann Banasky leaned into home plate looking right at Red Brooks, Mountain Ridge’s senior pitcher. 

Moments later, the pitch Banasky hit lifted above Brooks’ head and sailed over the outfield wall in the first inning, and the Miners eked out a 10-8 win May 8. 

“I knew we had two outs and needed a momentum change,” Shyann said. “I was just looking for a gap to get on base, but the home run just kind of happened. My team backed me up with more hits to finish the inning, and eventually the game.”

After that, Brooks—who will be playing on the same college team with Shyann, ironically—nearly gave up another home run to Shyann that was caught inches before it lifted over the outfield fence. Brooks then intentionally walked the Bingham senior on her next two at-bats. 

Bingham [18-9] also captured a 9-6 victory at Mountain Ridge May 5, handing the Sentinels only their third and fourth losses on the season, a team that was knocked out of a shot to win the Region 2 title outright after they suffered those two losses to a veteran group of Miners that is red-hot headed into this state tournament. 

For Shyann Banasky, she began playing tee ball with her older brother when the family was living in Price, according to her mom. 

“She’d wear her dress up Fancy Nancy tutu to games,” recalled Shauntel Banasky, who admitted she was feeling a bit nostalgic on her day—Mother’s Day. 

After that, and after the family had relocated to South Jordan for work, Shyann played a season of softball at Gene Fullmer Recreation Center when she was 7, changed to Little League Baseball for a season with the boys, then moved over to Oquirrh Mountain at age 9 for two seasons before she started playing competitive softball.

As a freshman, Shyann—aka Pamela—wasted zero time showing her stuff, hitting RBIs in her first game on the Bingham varsity in March 2021. A day later against Bear River, she launched her first home run and would finish the season with two Player of the Week awards, 3 HR and 14 RBI, and hit .326. 

Shyann’s numbers dropped somewhat as a sophomore, and so she wrapped up her second season on the varsity hitting two home runs and 11 RBI and yet her on-base percentage improved enough to .551 to rank her No. 32 in all of Class 6A. 

As a junior though, Shyann played in her most games in a season, had her most at-bats and yet hit .402 with three home runs and 20 RBI. Those numbers helped the Bingham Miner garner interest from a few schools after she gave it her all in the 6A championship game, going 3-for-4 at the plate against rival Riverton in a 12-3 loss that ended her third season on the varsity squad. 

Shyann has put all of those experiences together for her best year yet in 2025. The senior hit a team-high .478 with three homers, four triples, 10 doubles and 33 RBI for a Miners team that was literally gelling at the right time as the state tournament approached (which finished after press deadline). 

To give you an idea of how dominant Bingham was after that second loss to the Silverwolves, the Miners 10-run ruled San Juan in three innings, defeated Providence Hall 8-0 in five, and 10-runned Weber, their third opponent in five innings. 

Two days later, Shyann’s squad blasted Corner Canyon 10-0 in just six innings April 29. She went 7-for-9 at the plate, hitting two home runs and 8 RBI—in just four games. 

As a team, Bingham scored 39 runs and had 41 hits—in just four games. The best news of all? Senior Brecka Larson got a little rest after she had a perfect game and a no-hitter in Bingham’s first two wins of the streak; thus the senior responded with a 14-strikeout, two-hit shutout against Corner Canyon.  

Despite one narrow 2-1 setback to Herriman on May 1, the Miners went 5-1 over their last six games and have set themselves up for a potential bye at state by dismantling Mountain Ridge in those two games. 

For Shyann, her four years at Bingham is a long way from the red rocks and mining town of Price. She’ll travel even further away for college, according to her mom, as Shyann will study at and play for the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls. 

And yet her adopted city of South Jordan and Bingham High School have made her feel at home. λ