KEARNS — The Dons from Spanish Fork, with four state championships in the last six seasons, are undoubtedly one of the premier prep baseball programs in all of Utah.
And this year, they've got the state's most feared slugger in Kayden Porter, a senior pitcher/first baseman who's headed for the University of Carolina on a baseball scholarship -- if he doesn't turn pro instead.
But they're quickly finding out that, when it comes to this year's 3A state tournament, nobody's going to concede anything to them.
Spanish Fork had to stage a five-run uprising in the fifth inning to rally past spunky Region 12 rival Carbon, 8-4, in Thursday's 3A quarterfinals at Kearns High's Gates Field.
With their ninth straight win, the Dons (22-3) earned a spot in today's tourney semifinals against Snow Canyon — the team that Spanish Fork had to beat twice on the final day last year to win the 4A title.
Snow Canyon (19-8), which was forced to forfeit four Region 9 games this season for using an ineligible player, reached the semis with a 6-4 come-from-behind victory of its own over Canyon View.
When Porter crushed a three-run homer far over the left-field fence in the first inning, his 10th homer of the season and third blast of the state tournament, it looked like the Dons were well on their way to another easy win.
"I got a good swing on it and out it went," said Porter, who briefly admired the towering blast before slowly circling the bases. "Once I hit that ball, I figured this being my last year and it might be my last one, I wanted to enjoy that one. I wanted that to be one that I remembered. It felt real good when I hit that ball."
But Carbon (15-9), which lost to the Dons twice in finishing fourth behind league champion Spanish Fork, came up with a four-run outburst in the third. The Dinos bunched together three base hits and a sacrifice fly by Dakota Cisneros, but the big blow came on Jaren McCourt's own three-run bomb over the center-field fence for a 4-3 lead.
It stayed that way until the fifth, when Porter led off with a double down the left-field line. One out later, Jake Meservey singled home a run and then Colin Argyle was hit by a pitch.
"I hit that ball and I felt like I saw our team energy shift and we got the momentum back," Porter said. "And then once we did that, everybody started hitting again and we got those five runs and came out on top."
Indeed, after a strikeout put Carbon one out away from ending the inning, the Dons' No. 8 and No. 9 batters, Ben Talbot and Tyler Allred, respectively, did some major damage as they each smacked run-scoring singles.
Talbot eventually came around and stole home on a perfectly executed double steal, and Allred scored when Carbon committed an embarrassing outfield error to make it 8-4.
"I thought the biggest hits of the game were Talbot and Allred, the bottom of our lineup, there in the bottom of the fifth," said Spanish Fork coach Jim "Shoe" Nelson. "They came up with two two-out, clutch base hits, and that's something we didn't do earlier. ... Those were huge."
Spanish Fork senior pitcher Hayden Nielsen then finished what he started, setting down the Dinos without further damage over the final two innings to pick up the win on the mound despite allowing nine hits with six strikeouts and one walk.
"We have a little saying we've used all this season -- this pitch, this moment, and win," Nelson said. "And that doesn't mean score more runs, that means what's important now. You can't do anything about the three-run homer, all you do is this pitch, this moment, and focus on what you've got ahead of you. And that's pretty much been the mentality of all my teams.
"Kayden's been a marked guy all season long, and teams have pitched around him. A lot of the times, he's been undisciplined and got himself out. But it's tournament time and in all three tournaments he's played in this year ... he's hit the ball very well. He's hit three home runs now in this tournament, so I'm sure he's going to be pitched to very carefully.
"Kayden knows when the big stage is there," Nelson said. "In most of our league games, we didn't really need him all that much, but he knows that we need him now and I'll be real surprised if he doesn't have a real good rest of the tournament -- if he gets pitched to."
Porter, though, knows that this is much more than just a one-man show.
"This whole thing is just a team effort and everybody here is great guys, great players," he said. "And I'm just happy to be teammates with them and hopefully share another state title with them."
email: rhollis@desnews.com