High school softball: Herriman flexes its scoring prowess in dominant win over Fremont

A year ago, the Herriman Mustangs fell just short of their third-ever 6A state title with a loss to Bingham in the state finals.

The Mustangs graduated five seniors last year and they don’t have a single senior on their roster this season. Not only that, but Herriman also has 12 freshmen on its varsity squad with many of them starting.

Despite their youth the Mustangs have been red hot, scoring a combined 88 runs in their last five games, and they moved their record to 8-1 on the season Wednesday with a dominant 15-3 home win over Fremont.

Herriman is outscoring its opponents by an average of 9.9 runs per game so far this season.

“We have solid defense,” said Herriman head coach Heidi McKissick. “The girls work hard on offense and defense and it’s showing. I’m really excited. We’re really young. We have no seniors. We have 12 freshmen and we have a few of them starting.”

The Mustangs jumped out to a modest 3-1 lead after the first inning, but they went off for 12 runs in the second inning for a 15-1 lead.

Much of the second inning scoring run happened with two outs and many of the Herriman hitters found a way on base even while facing two strikes.

“We just put the ball in play and when we have two outs we know we’re running on anything,” said McKissick.

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Aspen Hawes shined in the second inning with two doubles, which got in four runners. Hawes finished Wednesday’s game batting 1.000.

“I think we’re very disciplined at bat,” said Hawes. “When we have two strikes we adjust, and it helps us hit better.”

Hawes is one of the 12 freshmen on the Herriman squad and she says they’ll be successful despite their youth.

“I think it gives us a lot of opportunities as a younger team to be on varsity and learn,” she said. “I think we’re a really good group of girls even though we are young. We’re getting really close, and we have a lot of chemistry.”

Fremont found a little success in the third inning with Jessica Broadbent hitting a triple to bring in two runs, but the Mustangs held the Silverwolves scoreless in the fourth and fifth innings to secure the mercy rule win.

“I’m excited. I think we’re going to challenge all those teams,” said McKissick. “I think we have a lot more to do and we can only get better. We just have to clean it up and I think we’re going to be fine.”

McKissick said running up the score has been a big emphasis for the Mustangs this season.

“The goal is always to score 10 runs and we’ve done that the last five games,” she said. “The game we lost to Pleasant Grove we only scored five runs, so our philosophy is ‘Score 10 runs and we’re going to be fine.’”

Herriman got a dominant 19-0 win in its first Region 2 game against Corner Canyon on Tuesday and it will face its second Region 2 opponent on Thursday with a road game against Copper Hills.