OREM — Once he saw the offensive fireworks unfolding before his eyes, Brock Duke looked for any opening he could find to give Spanish Fork an edge in such a battle.
Duke struck in the best way possible — with a home run that ripped momentum away from the Beetdiggers in one swift motion.
"That's what you expect from your big guy," Dons coach Jim "Shoe" Nelson said. "He's our big guy and he has been for four years."
Using the boost created by Duke's three-run homer, Spanish Fork rolled to a 9-4 victory in the 5A baseball tournament at Utah Valley University.
Both teams came out with bats blazing initially.
Jordan grabbed a 2-0 lead at the top of the first inning when Cory Hunt slammed a ball out to the center field wall that brought in Scott Lundquist and then followed with a run of his own after coming in on a wild pitch.
Spanish Fork quickly equalized things at 2-2 in the bottom of the inning after Braden Warren smacked a grounder just past the infield to bring home Trevor Randolf and pinch runner Travis Still. While the Beetdiggers cooled down significantly after their initial outburst, the Dons just continued to heat up. Those flames started to reach a melting point as soon as Duke put Spanish Fork ahead 5-2 in the second when he drilled his home run over the left field wall with two runners already on base.
It not only handed the Dons a three-run lead in dramatic fashion, but Duke helped take a little pressure off his younger brother Adam after a shaky first inning from the mound.
"It's huge to be able to pitch with the lead," Brock Duke said. "It changes your whole approach on the mound."
The Dons pushed their lead to 7-3 in the fourth inning when Brett Grover belted a triple to center field to set up an eventual run for himself and Still added another run off of a sacrifice fly from Greg Money.
Jordan made one last push to get back into the game when Hunt duplicated the Beetdiggers very first run — by blasting another ball to the center field wall to bring in Lundquist — to make it 7-4.
Spanish Fork put an end to those comeback hopes when Braden Warren scored off a sacrifice fly from Nate Binks to make it 8-4.
It wasn't lost on Nelson that the Dons had essentially beat Jordan at its own game by using its offense to overwhelm the Beetdiggers.
"I was happy with the fact we kept putting up runs," Nelson said. "That's what you want to do when you got a lead. Add a run here. Add a run there. If you can keep scoring . . . that's kind of deflating for the other team."
Next up for Spanish Fork is the winner's bracket final where they will face Alta — after the Hawks used a final inning rally to beat Taylorsville earlier in the day — on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.
ALTA 6, TAYLORSVILLE 5: The Hawks rallied to put up three runs and come-from-behind to beat Taylorsville and advance to Thursday's winner's bracket finals.
LONE PEAK 8, TIMPANOGOS 5: Blake Lewis threw a complete game to get the win for the Knights.
WEST JORDAN 8, LAYTON 3: West Jordan was down to its final out before eight straight Jaguards reached base and they rallies for six runs.
E-mail: jcoon@desnews.com