YOUR AD HERE »

Miners baseball will seek region title

Park City sophomore Ryan Hunt, left, and senior Max Mobley practice at the Basin Recreation Fieldhouse on Thursday. The team will start its season on Tuesday against Orem.
Tanzi Propst

On each of Dave Feasler’s baseball practice schedules, there is a photo of a baseball diamond.

It’s an aerial shot, looking down from above the seating behind home plate out over the lush checkered grass of Lindquist Field, which the minor league Ogden Raptors call home.

If the Park City High School team makes it to the state tournament, that’s where they will play.



“Guys rally about getting to Lindquist,” Feasler said.

The team has been pushing toward that point since last season when, senior Ben Agnew said, the Miners were knocked out of the state playoffs by Snow Canyon, and immediately returned to practice.



“We got right off the bus and went right back to the cages after losing that game,” Agnew said. “And we just started working.”

Agnew is one of the team’s most experienced players, having hit a walk-off double in a state semi-final game as a sophomore. He was a steady presence on the mound last season and hit in the middle of the Miners’ lineup.

Alongside him, junior Ryan Jeffrey will likely be the team’s go-to pitcher, having played last season as the team’s No. 1 — though all of the team’s pitchers will also play other positions, a slight departure from last season, Feasler said. Senior center fielder Max Mobley and senior outfielder and pitcher Evan Pointer will also serve as steadying forces through the season and will be shuffled into the middle of the batting order. Junior Zack Blaszak was the team’s lead-off hitter last season and will likely fill that role this year.

Two move-ins are also expected to boost the Miners’ lineup.

Austin Davison, who attends Rowland Hall, joins the team as a catcher. The senior lives in Park City, and was able to join the Miners because Rowland Hall didn’t field a baseball team this year.

Junior infielder Alex Chachas joins the team after moving from La Costa Canyon High School, north of San Diego, to Park City in early February.

Chachas has already made an impression on the coach.

“He’ll be a big contributor, I think,” Feasler said.

Feasler’s vision for the team can be summed up in one word, though he repeated it for emphasis: “Aggressive, aggressive, aggressive.”

“I think we’re really going to hit this year,” he said. “We’re going to be super-aggressive with the bats. Then we just have to be able to translate that to our defense and our pitching.”

The coach left the goal-setting to his players, who chose to hone their sights on a region championship, with possibly a top-five state finish.

“That’s kind of been our goal for as long as Feas has been here,” Agnew said of winning the region.

Last season the team took second, falling one game shy of beating Juan Diego to the Region 11 title.

Agnew said that loss will serve as motivation for a team that has been gaining steam over the last two years as they start their season on Tuesday at Orem High School at 3 p.m.

Last season’s shortcomings already motivated the team to practice at the Basin Rec Fieldhouse through the offseason, where Agnew said the Miners have been diligently working toward opening day.

“We worked all summer, fall and now through the winter,” Agnew said. “We are pretty excited to get going on Tuesday to see all that work pay off and hopefully have a successful year.”


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around Park City and Summit County make the Park Record's work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.