HIGHLAND — The Lone Peak Knights and the Mountain Crest Mustangs have had similar baseball seasons.
Both are talented squads and have looked outstanding at times, but both have also had multi-game slumps where they looked mediocre at best.
Lone Peak has apparently turned things around while Mountain Crest continues to struggle. The Knights pounded out 12 hits Tuesday in galloping past the Mustangs 11-3 in the first round of the Class 4A playoffs.
There were several key hits for the Knights up and down their batting order, but it was the extra-base hits that delivered most of the runs. Lone Peak had two doubles, two triples and a home run.
"When you get your team leaders going the role players are going to fall in behind them, and that's kind of what's happening right now," Lone Peak coach Dan Schoonover said. "Our leaders are playing really well right now, and the rest of the kids are coming with them. It's just creating a lot of confidence."
Those leaders are seniors Matt Bezzant, Braden Walker, Mike Jensen and Benji Woahn. In Tuesday's win, Woahn pitched six innings, allowed three runs on seven hits and had two singles at the plate. Walker had two singles, a double, scored twice and knocked in three. Bezzant had a single and a solo home run. Jensen had two walks, a triple and scored twice.
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That's been the story for Lone Peak of late. The turnaround started when Walker was moved from batting third to lead off.
"He's brought a lot of enthusiasm into the first few innings for us," Schoonover said.
The Knights took charge of the game when they scored five times in the second inning - all coming with two outs. Jensen walked to lead off the inning, and Devin Cahoon reached on a sacrifice bunt attempt when Mountain Crest catcher Luke Lofthouse hesitated before throwing to first. Still, it looked as though Mustangs starter Kyle Hamilton was going to get out of the jam when he fanned Tyler Hogge and got Derek Hansen to pop out to second. But he walked the next two batters, forcing in one run before Pat Bailey cleared them with a three-run triple into the left-center gap. Woahn singled home Bailey.
Mountain Crest got back in the game briefly with two runs in the third. A walk followed by a Brady Zimmerman double put two men on for Jordan Thompson - who slapped a grounder between first and second that was headed to right field before Bailey made a great diving stop. However, by the time the Knights' second baseman got up and got the ball out of his glove, two runners had scored.
Lone Peak got the runs right back in the bottom half. Walker smashed home both runs with a drive into the right-field gap, a popular destination for Lone Peak's hits Tuesday. The Knights scored two more in the fourth. Bezzant led off with a shot over the left-field fence. Jensen followed with a triple to the right-field gap and scored on a Hogge sacrifice fly. Hogge knocked across another run in the sixth with a single and he scored Lone Peak's final run on a double by Derek Hansen.
Lone Peak travels to play Murray today while Mountain Crest hosts Provo.
E-mail: jimr@desnews.com