SPANISH FORK — Last Friday, after Spanish Fork kept its record perfect with a win over Springville, center fielder Cory Grover did not feel like he was playing his best baseball. He admitted to being in a bit of a slump.
"My timing just seemed a bit off," he said. "It was just the little bit that mattered that I was fouling off pitches or rolling over the top or swinging off my front foot."
Although the team was winning, Grover felt he had a little more work to do.
"To show you what kind of players we have, Cory showed up at my house Friday night about eight to get the keys from me," said Spanish Fork coach Jim "Shoe" Nelson. "He wanted to go over and get in some more hitting."
The hard work paid off as Grover exploded at the plate Tuesday against Cottonwood. He went 3-for-4 with a single, double and a home run, and his five RBIs led the way in Spanish Fork's 11-5 victory over the Colts.
"He can swing it like that if he is patient," Nelson added.
For the first three innings, no one was swinging the bat particularly well. The big reason for that was the starting pitchers for both sides. Spanish Fork's Nelson Castleberry was firing his fastball, and Cottonwood's Chase Brooks was keeping the Dons off-balance. Except for a lead-off triple in the second inning by the Dons' Jordan Smith— he scored on Rhett Nielsen's ground out-RBI— neither team could muster any offense.
  | |
As the starters began to tire, and simultaneously the weather worsened as it began to rain, the combination created an offensive burst. Cliff Anderson tripled to lead off the fourth for Cottonwood, and Tanner Robles knocked him in with a ground out. Grover began the Dons' fourth with a solo home run over center field, but the Colts took the lead in the top of the fifth when Curtis Larsen scored on a throwing error and Anderson doubled to allow Casey Sato to cross the plate. It was a short-lived cushion as the bottom of the fifth was the decisive spurt.
The Dons sent nine men to the plate during the outburst. Jace Brinkerhoff had an RBI-single, but the big blow came on Grover's bases-clearing double. Nielsen also picked up his second RBI of the game with a double of his own.
"I thought we got to them after they had to go to their bullpen," said Nelson. "I thought it was a case of us getting some timely hitting."
If the fifth was the big stretch run, the sixth simply put the game out of reach as Spanish Fork scored four more runs on Aaron Bink's two-RBI single, Grover's fifth RBI on a single and Nielsen's third RBI on his second double of the contest. Grover also came in to close out the game in the seventh.
The No. 1-ranked Dons kept their record perfect at 7-0 while the loss drops Cottonwood to 1-3 on the young season.
"I think this is a pretty good blueprint of what we want to do," Nelson concluded. "We want to get the four or five innings from our starter, turn it over to a reliever and then let Grover close it out. If we can keep that up, that is pretty much the plan."
E-mail: mblack@desnews.com