MURRAY — Lone Peak may be the hottest team in the state.
After beating Mountain Crest 11-3 on Tuesday, the Knights took their game to another level by thumping Region 5's No. 1 seed Murray 15-1 in five innings Wednesday.
Lone Peak has won six straight games and seven of its last eight and will play Springville on Tuesday at BYU in the winners bracket of the 4A state tournament.
Figuring out why Lone Peak has scored so many runs would require baseball fans to show up to the ball park early, especially on Wednesday.
"We took the best BP (batting practice) we've ever taken today," Lone Peak coach Danny Schoonover said. "That was the best BP we've taken in five years. The balls were jumping off their bat in BP all day today. They were hitting the ball on the nose and it carried over to the game."
The Knights pounded out 14 hits and scored nine runs in the first inning to quickly put the game out of reach.
Pat Bailey put an exclamation mark on the win by hitting a three-run home run in the first inning and a two-run shot in the third. Bailey's two homers were the first of the season and both flew over the left field fence.
"BP just went good today and we were ready," Bailey said.
Batting practice wasn't the only thing that went well for the Knights.
Alex Hesterly fanned 11 batters and allowed only four hits in five innings of work.
"We came out and scored some runs and he came out and backed us right up," Bailey said.
Before Hesterly stepped on the mound, leadoff hitter Braden Walker started the Knights' impressive offensive performance by reaching base on a Murray fielding error.
After a sacrifice bunt by Bailey, nine consecutive batters reached base for Lone Peak on six hits and two errors. Walker, Mike Jensen, Devin Cahoon, Zeke Mendenhall and Jared Dahl all recorded singles before Bailey hit his first home run with two outs.
"We put a little pressure on the kids today," Schoonover said. "We needed to show people that we can play. We scored a bunch in that first inning and kept it going. The kids are swinging it real well right now."
Murray starting pitcher Adam McDougal gave up six runs and lasted only two-thirds of an inning.
"He just ran into a hot team right now," Schoonover said.
Sean Pitts scored Murray's only run in the bottom of the first on a leadoff home run.