PROVO — While Springville parents, fans, students, coaches and players celebrated around him, pitcher Aaron Jensen sat on one knee in the outfield at BYU's Miller Field Friday afternoon and soaked it in.
He was too emotional to talk about what he had just done — pitched the Red Devils to the state 4A baseball championship. After a couple of minutes with his head down and eyes closed, he stood and embraced his father and brother.
"We did it, man," he tearfully said, as they continued hugging for several minutes.
He then joined his teammates in accepting congratulations from the post-game throng that had rushed the field, before giving his take on how he and his team had edged the talented Cyprus Pirates 3-2.
He credited everyone but himself. The infielders who handled 11 ground balls with only one miscue. The hitters who posted three runs in the fourth inning to give the Red Devils a lead they would never relinquish. And finally, Dan Bulow, his longtime battery mate who has caught his 95 mph fastballs for the past three seasons.
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"He calls the pitches, and I trust him. I just throw what he calls," said Jensen, who in three tournament wins gave up only nine hits and two runs, while striking out 28 in 21 innings.
Jensen did, however, relish in the way the game ended, with him striking out the side in Cyprus' final at bat.
"That's exactly how I wanted it to happen. It was flippin' awesome," he said, in describing his feelings when that final pitch rested in Bulow's mitt.
In the other dugout the Pirates were talking about the what-ifs. They put the bat on the ball more than most who played Springville this year but squandered a couple of scoring chances and left six runners stranded. They also committed a key error and a major base-running blunder.
"We had our chances," Cyprus coach Bob Fratto said. "They took advantage of the ones they got and we didn't."
Springville's fourth and Cyprus' sixth were the game's key innings.
The Red Devils, after falling behind 1-0 in the first inning on two Pirates singles, battled back with three runs in that critical fourth inning rally. Bulow hit a lead-off double to right field. B.J. Crane followed with an RBI single to left field. Mark Pawelek put down a sacrifice bunt but was called safe at first base when the second baseman took the throw off the bag.
A couple of pitches later the Pirates caught pinch runner Chris Erekson wandering too far off the base, but Erekson raced to third when catcher Nathan Scheurer threw to second. Matt Newbury drove him home with a sacrifice fly to right. Scott Pickering then knocked in the eventual game-winner with a liner over first base.
Cyprus threatened to regain the lead in the sixth. Tyson Pearce doubled deep to left field. He tried to advance on a grounder bobbled by Crane at third but was tagged out. Kyle Huntsman walked and Reggie Fisher reached on Springville's only error to load the bases. Tate scored when Joe Ellis was thrown out on a soft grounder to short, closing the gap to 3-2. Nathan Shakespear walked to again load the bases. But Jensen got out of the jam when he fielded a high-hopper over his head and threw out Joe Wice at first.
"After they scored those runs Jensen turned it up a notch and we still had a shot," Fratto said. "A hit here and a hit there, and you never know."
Springville coach Willy Child agreed that Jensen had fire in his eyes after the Red Devils scored the three runs, and he said Jensen's confidence spread to his teammates.
"They all started wanting the ball hit to them," Child said. "And once we get a lead with (Jensen or fellow starter Pawelek) throwing we all just feel like they're going to get it done for us because they have all year."
While Child spread credit around for the Red Devils championship run, even his young son knows who carried most of the load. When Child handed his son a T-ball uniform last week with the No. 27, the number of Child's uniform, the boy handed it back to his father.
"I don't want that one. I want No. 10," his son told him, the number on Jensen's uniform.
The state baseball title was Springville's fourth. The Red Devils won previous state crowns in 1986, 1990 and 1995.
E-mail: jimr@desnews.com