On the opening day of Region 4 baseball on Monday afternoon, Lone Peak made a pretty strong statement.
A year after finishing fourth in region play, Lone Peak opened league play with an impressive 11-6 road victory against defending region and state champion American Fork.
Lone Peak catcher Dane Tenney led the way offensively from the No. 9 slot in the batting order as he went 3 for 3 with a pair of doubles and an RBI, with Jordan Fry, Josh Heaton and Kade Gambill each recording two RBIs.
Lone Peak coach Matt Bezzant used three different pitchers to slow down American Fork’s potent lineup, with starter Heaton earning the winning after going four innings with five strikeouts.
He got great run support early, as Lone Peak scored twice in the second inning and then added four more in the top of the third to take a 6-0 lead.
“We were fortunate to get a couple big hits early to get us some runs. Obviously American Fork is a very talented and extremely deep roster so every run absolutely matters in a game against them,” said Bezzant.
American Fork cut the lead to 6-1 in the bottom of the third and then put up a four spot in the fourth inning to make it a 6-5 game.
Lone Peak answered right back in a very unconventional way, scoring three runs in the fifth without a base hit.
“We had a bunch of quality at bats and worked a bunch of counts to put ourselves in that position to answer back after their big inning. Some innings are going to be like that, and fortunately working a walk for our hitters gave us those runs,” said Bezzant.
With the 9-5 lead, Bezzant went to his bullpen with Brigham Smith and Easton Comer combining to only allow three hits and one run over those final three innings.
Monday’s game was originally scheduled for Tuesday, but it was moved up a day because of the winter storm expected to hit the Wasatch Front on Tuesday and Wednesday. The three-game series is scheduled to resume on Thursday at Lone Peak with the third game at American Fork on Friday.