Enterprise had never won a state championship prior to 2018, but now it’s on the verge of a 3-peat with no end in sight.
The Wolves won a pair of games during Friday’s 2A state tournament at Spanish Fork Complex and is the last team standing in the winner’s bracket heading into Saturday’s championship rounds.
Enterprise will face the winner Millard vs. Duchesne, the last two teams standing in the one-loss bracket who meet at 10 a.m.
It will be a tall order for either to dethrone the Wolves, who are a perfect 16-0 against 2A competition this season.
That includes a 10-0 win over Beaver in the first game on Friday and then a 5-2 win over No. 1 seed Duchesne in the winner’s bracket final.
“We come ready to play against Beaver, they’re our rivals and we just come focused. Mentally we have to be focused against Beaver whether it’s a 10-run game or a two or three-run ball game,” said Enterprise coach Katye Jones.
Blakelee Christiansen commanded the strike zone to pick up the victory in both games as she improved to 13-3 on the season.
Jones said the key against Duchesne’s quality hitters was finding the corners consistently.
“If she didn’t move the ball I know they’re good hitters. So she needed to make sure she hit her spots and didn’t go down the middle of the zone, if we hit the middle of the zone they’re great hitters and they’re going to drive the ball,” said Jones.
Even though Duchesne scored twice off of Christiansen, defensive miscues made them both possible.
After Enterprise scored twice in the top of the first on a two-run single from Noah Moyle, Duchesne answered back with two more tying the score at 2-2. The first run scored on an overthrow on a pick-off attempt, and the second on a short blooper right at second base that the shortstop and second baseman both watched drop instead of making the routine catch.
“I think our jitters got to us, it’s a huge game and we were a little nervous. We needed to just settle down, once we settled down we were OK,” said Jones.
Duchesne put some runners on base over the next six innings, but Christiansen made the pitches she needed to thwart any rally-cap momentum.
Addison Nelson helped Enterprise regain the lead in the third inning with a two-run home run to left field as she finished the game going 3 for 4 with two RBIs.
In Enterprise’s three wins at Spanish Fork Complex the past two days Nelson is 6 for 10 with six RBIs.
“She’s disciplined, she’s not going to go after junk pitches, she’s going to just go after good pitches and she doesn’t try to do too much. She’ll get the ball on the middle of the ball and not do too much,” said Jones.
Enterprise stretched the lead to 5-2 in the fifth inning on another RBI single from Moyle, who has six RBIs in the state tournament.
Despite taking the loss, Duchesne’s Kelsey Grant had a strong day on the mound with nine strikeouts and holding the Wolves to their fewest runs against a 2A team all season.
Duchesne’s ace hopes to get another shot at Enterprise on Saturday, but first her team needs to beat Millard in the morning to set up that possibility.