Houston Rockets head coach Rudy Tomjanovich coined the phrase, "Never underestimate the heart of a champion" when his team staved off elimination en route to repeating as NBA Champions in 1995. That phrase can now be applied to the Alta High softball team.
After suffering a 5-0 loss to Taylorsville in Wednesday's second round of the 5A state tournament, the defending state champion Hawks bounced back to defeat West Jordan 4-1 at the Cottonwood Complex Thursday.The win kept third-ranked Alta alive in the double-elimination tournament and set up a meeting with No. 1-ranked Bingham today, while the Jaguars were sent home for the year. Roy and Taylorsville are the other two teams remaining in the championship hunt, which will be decided today, barring any inclement weather.
In their loss to Taylorsville, the Hawks committed four errors, and when added to a wild pitch and a passed ball, accounted for four of the Warriors runs. It was arguably Alta's worst game of the year.
"This was a real key game for us," Alta head coach Vaughn Alvey said about the West Jordan matchup. "We had to stay alive after a disappointing performance."
Wondering if his team would be loose for the game wasn't a problem for Alvey as his players sang songs on the bus ride to the game to pump themselves up. Whether it was a matter of pride or the singing, it helped Alta jump out to an early lead the Jaguars could never recover from.
After Camie Hales and Stacy Holmes hit first inning singles, Amberly Johnson hit a grounder to third but the throw to first was wide, allowing Hales and Holmes to score. Johnson advanced to third on the play and scored on a sacrifice by Andrea Anderson for a 3-0 lead after one inning of play.
That was all the scoring the Hawks really needed as pitcher Tiffany Yates, who was throwing her third game in less than 24 hours, didn't allow a West Jordan runner past second base until the sixth inning. Yates looked to be tiring in the inning, giving up a pair of singles, a walk and allowing a run to score on a wild pitch before getting Lisa Rutledge to ground out to end the game.
"Scoring early really helped us," Alvey said. "Any time a team gets down in the losers' bracket it's tough to come back from that."
Alta now looks to gain a bit of revenge in its meeting with Bingham. The two teams met once this year in the championship game of a tournament in St. George. The Miners won that contest 1-0.
In Thursday's other games:
Bingham 4, Taylorsville 0: After escaping with a pair of one-run victories in their first two games of the tournament, the top-ranked Miners grabbed a comfortable win over the fourth-ranked Warriors. Bingham scored twice in the first and second innings with Michelle Powell driving in a run in each inning. Candee Bowden retired the first 11 Taylorsville batters she faced before giving up a hit in the fourth inning.
Roy 2, Fremont 1: Chrissy Sase slammed a two-out triple to left field in the bottom of the seventh inning that drove home Shelly Hipwell and gave the Royals a thrilling victory over their Region 1 rivals the Silver Wolves. Trailing 1-0 most of the game, Fremont missed golden scoring chances in the fourth and fifth innings before finally tying things up in the top of the seventh on a run-scoring single by Shelby Scadden.