SPANISH FORK — It's kind of hard to be too disappointed when your season ends at the hands of the top-ranked team — that is, unless it's in blowout fashion.
The Bear River Bears sent the Lehi Pioneers packing for the season Thursday night with a 15-2 five-inning rout in the Class 3A baseball playoffs. It was a 10-run third inning that ended any mystery of the outcome. The Bears move on to play Dixie today.
The Bears' bats were smoking, but they also got some help from Lehi's pitching and defense. After posting a run in the first on a lone single, Bear River added four more in the second on two hit batters, an error and two hits. The big blow was a two-run double by Ike Fronk.
The Bears sent 11 men to the plate in the big third inning. Two reached on errors, one walked and another was hit by a pitch. But then Bear River unloaded five straight hits. Fronk knocked in two more with a single, and Marcus Hanley smashed a towering shot over the left-field fence to score two more. Lehi simply ran out of arms and used four different pitchers in the loss.
Lehi made it to Thursday night's elimination game by beating Uintah 6-4 earlier in the day. The Pioneers trailed in that contest 4-3 heading into the bottom of the sixth and came from behind thanks to the clutch hitting of Monte Downs.
Beau Thomas started the sixth by getting hit by a pitch. Ferron Rice followed with a bunt single. Downs, who had delivered a two-run single in the fourth, came to bat after a failed sacrifice and with one out. With the runners moving he lined a curveball over the center fielder's head and to the fence. Both runners scored standing, and Downs had a stand-up triple but decided to keep going and also scored when the cut-off man dropped the relay. Downs had four RBIs and a run scored.
Uintah, trailing by two, put two runners on in the seventh on two walks. But Lehi reliever C. J. Healey, only a freshman, enticed three pop-outs to secure the win. Healey came on in the fourth with Lehi trailing 4-1 and held the Utes scoreless the remainder of the game.
Lehi was fortunate the Utes didn't blow the game open early. Uintah left the bases loaded in the second, third and fourth innings and stranded two runners in the fifth and seventh innings. The Utes had only three hits but had nine batters walk and the Pioneers committed four errors.
E-mail: jimr@desnews.com