LAYTON — Apparently, American Fork baseball coach Jarod Ingersoll has his batting order set up pretty well.
In the Cavemen's 14-4 first-round road-win Tuesday over Northridge in the 5A playoffs, American Fork's No. 1, No. 2 and No. 8 hitters each blasted a home run. Bo Fisher's opposite-field grand slam in a seven-run fourth launched the Cavemen comfortably in front 8-0. Then a two-run shot by Jake Perry and a three-run jack by Nate Pitcher in the seventh sealed the deal.
"I think everyone was going up to the plate with a good game plan and a good approach," Ingersoll said.
American Fork's entire batting order had at least one hit in the 16-hit attack. Fisher finished with three hits and four RBIs, Pitcher had two hits and three RBIs, No. 5 hitter Andy Lewis had three hits and two RBIs, No. 7 hitter Randy Searle had three hits and two RBIs, and Perry added two hits and two RBIs.
"That's what you have to have in games like this is good production from a lot of people," Ingersoll said.
The Cavemen also got a nice Houdini pitching performance from junior Josh Mooney — who scattered nine hits in six innings but escaped Northridge's shackles several times with clutch pitching. The Knights put runners on second and third in the third and Mooney didn't allow either to score.After Braxton Davis' solo homer in the fourth cut American Fork's lead to 8-1, the Knights put two more runners on but neither crossed.
In Northridge's fifth the Knights had two hits and drew two walks, but only scored one run in the frame. In the sixth, with American Fork leading only 8-4 following RBI singles by Boston Poll and Carson Pace, the Knights put two more runners on base but Mooney ended the threat by striking out Davis looking.
Mooney also picked two Northridge runners off of second base.
"That's typical of how Josh pitches," Ingersoll said. "He wants the ball in his hands in those kind of situations."
Once Mooney had put the fire out in the sixth, the Cavemen hitters gave him some cushion with a big top of the seventh. Perry got it going when he blistered a line shot over the left-field fence to score two. Three batters later Pitcher hit a towering opposite-field fly to left-center that carried over the fence to score three more. Lewis finished off American Fork's scoring with a two-out RBI single to left.
American Fork advances to face Taylorsville today in the winner's bracket. Northridge will try to stay alive against Copper Hills.
E-mail: jimr@desnews.com