Graduation celebrations being what they are, Springville Coach Kelly Clements said he planned to put it to his team this way: Would you rather be celebrating graduation, or a state championship?
While most of Springville's senior class undoubtedly spent Thursday evening celebrating graduation day, his baseball team, presumably, was tucked in bed. "I'm going to ask just how important it is to them," said Clements. "They need to get home and get to bed."Springville moved one game away from the state 3A baseball title Thursday afternoon, eliminating West 5-0 at Derks Field. That set up a 4:30 Friday meeting against Bountiful at Ken Price Park. If Bountiful _ which has one loss _ wins, the teams will play again at 7 p.m., since Springville is undefeated. Bountiful earned its spot in the finals by beating Spanish Fork 11-5. "We've played our hearts out," said Bountiful Coach Phil Olsen, "and we're where we want to be."
The Springville-West game offered a considerably better fare than normally attends the fourth day of competition. West's Jesse Valles and Springville's Paul Creer put on a fine pitching display, neither giving the opposition much encouragement. By the time the game was five innings gone, Springville was clinging to a 1-0 lead in a light rain. Valles had allowed just two hits and Creer was one-hitting the Panthers.
Creer scored the game's first run by vaulting past West catcher Mike Romano on a play at the plate in the fourth.
By the sixth, the rain and West were beginning to break up. An error let two more runs cross the plate and Valles was stung for a two-run single by Ryan Averett, building the lead to 5-0. "Today we didn't hit as well as we can," said Clements, "but tomorrow we better be ready to hit."
Although Springville beat Bountiful 13-2 in the first round, Clements remained cautious about his prospects. "I've seen teams come in needing to lose twice in order to not win the championship, and they've done it," he said. "I hope we are ready tomorrow."
Said Olsen of the first encounter: "We were young and we were scared to death. By the second game we had gotten used to it, and we turned it up a notch. Then you keep turning it up higher and higher and hope the tube doesn't break." Bountiful 11, Spanish Fork 5
Spanish Fork contributed much toward its own undoing, committing six errors against the Braves.
Bountiful got three runs across in the first inning, as the Dons committed three errors in that inning alone. Jeff Parrish singled in the first two runs and Brad Beck scored on an error.
Parrish homered in the fourth for a 4-0 lead.
Although the Dons got a run in the fourth, it was over by the fifth. Parrish, who led his team with four RBI, singled in a fifth-inning run, while another scored on an error and Mark Shaffer sacrificed in a third for a 7-1 lead.
Winning pitcher Matt Walton lasted until two were out in the seventh, when he was lifted in favor of Scott Erickson.