South Summit’s Alyssa Sargent sure has a flare for the dramatic.
The junior catcher had never hit a varsity home run in her career, but she ripped a no-doubter in the bottom of the seventh that helped No. 4 seeded South Summit rally past No. 5 seeded Emery in improbably fashion.
Emery led 11-6 going into the bottom of the seventh and just needed three more outs at Spanish Fork Complex to punch its ticket into the next round. South Summit, however, rallied with six runs in the bottom half of the inning to pull out the 12-11 victory to move on in the 3A winners bracket at Spanish Fork Complex.
It was Sargent’s three-run homer that tied the game with the five runs all coming with no outs.
South Summit coach Cody Bowen was pleased with how his players approached the daunting bottom of the seventh down five.
“It just starts with one girl chipping away getting on base. I’m telling you, the pressure of these games is tough. You’ve still ... have to keep making plays, you’ve still got to put balls in play. Scratch away and sometimes good things happen. Happy to be on the happy end of it for sure,” said Bowen.
It started with Averie Snyder getting plunked to reach base, followed by a single from Indee Jones. Back-to-back singles by Ellie Reidhead and Kamryn Chandler cut the deficit to 11-8.
That set the stage for Sargent, who smashed her first career home run tying the game 11-11.
“You just never know what these games bring. A testament to our girls for battling back because five runs is a lot,” said Bowen.
South Summit wasn’t done. Emma Broadbent singled and eventually came around to score the winning run on an Emery throwing error.
For Bowen, it was the type of win he’s been waiting all year for from his team.
“That’s been our challenge all year. Is we’ve beaten the teams we should’ve beaten in most cases, but we haven’t really won a game where maybe we shouldn’t have won, and this certainly is one of those and this is a big step for those girls,” he said.
South Summit will face top-seed Carbon in the winners bracket on Friday at 10 a.m. Carbon also won by one run, but with a complete different type of drama — a pitcher’s duel.
Carbon’s Tenley Madsen singled home Brielle Sandoval in the bottom of the sixth inning, the only run of the game as Carbon blanked Grand 1-0 for the second round victory. Haven Byerly pitched a brilliant game on the mound for the Dinos striking out 16 in seven innings.
There wasn’t much drama in the other 3A second round games, which all started several hours late on Saturday because of the rain-soaked fields.
Defending 3A state champ Grantsville rolled past North Sanpete 11-0 as Addison Butler drove in six runs with a home run and a double. Kenzie Allen also had a pair of extra base hits with two RBIs.
No. 2 seed Grantsville will face No. 3 seed Manti in Friday’s winners bracket game at 10 a.m. after Manti coasted past Canyon View 9-2.