High school baseball: 3A state tournament Monday recap — Juab, Richfield, Canyon View, Emery advance in bracket play

This story will be updated.

Juab 10, Grantsville 3

In last year’s state tournament, the Juab Wasps entered as the second seed but fell in the first round of bracket play to eventual state champion No. 7 Union.

The Wasps made sure this year was different as they once again entered the state tournament as the second seed. This time they advanced in bracket play with a 10-3 win over No. 7 Grantsville.

“I think this year we just hit the ball much better than last year,” said Juab head coach Josh Park. “This game we were a little more aggressive at the plate, jumped on them and I felt like that momentum got us rolling in this one.”

Juab’s consistency both at bat and on the pitching mound stole the show. The Wasps got hitting throughout their lineup, while Juab star and 2024’s Mr. Baseball Austin Park threw seven strikeouts in five innings.

Park was replaced by Porter Howard in the sixth inning and he also contributed with two strikeouts.

“I thought they did a good job,” said coach Park. “Austin wasn’t quite on his game today and he wasn’t quite hitting spots, but he did good enough for us and he was forcing them to beat us.

“Porter did a great job of coming in and mixing speeds, mixing pitches and keeping them off balance.”

The first inning, Juab jumped out ahead with six runs and took a commanding 10-2 lead by the third inning.

All nine batters in the Wasps lineup created a threat to get on base or hit a batter home. Austin Park hit an early home run which scored two runs.

Madix Stowell led Juab in RBIs with three. Stowell had only one base hit but had two well-timed sacrifice hits that both scored a run.

1 of 30

2 of 30

3 of 30

4 of 30

5 of 30

6 of 30

7 of 30

8 of 30

9 of 30

10 of 30

11 of 30

12 of 30

13 of 30

14 of 30

15 of 30

16 of 30

17 of 30

18 of 30

19 of 30

20 of 30

21 of 30

22 of 30

23 of 30

24 of 30

25 of 30

26 of 30

27 of 30

28 of 30

29 of 30

30 of 30

Richfield 7, Union 3

The No. 11 Richfield Wildcats have done it again.

The Wildcats had to win two in a row in their super regional with Providence Hall after losing their first game 4-3. Richfield went on to win the next two games, but its prize was facing defending 3A champion No. 3 Union in the first round of bracket play.

However, Richfield did not look like an 11 seed on Monday as it beat the Cougars 7-3 for yet another upset win.

“It was huge just to get here,” said Richfield head coach Drew Hill. “Once we did that, I kept telling them, ‘You get to the state tournament and all bets are off. It’s a brand-new season. Write your own story’ and we were ready.”

Richfield jumped out to a 4-1 lead after it loaded the bases in the first inning and got a run on a walk. The Wildcats then loaded the bases again in the second inning and Malik Fautin and Garrett Wayman each hit a runner home while Cord White stole home for the 4-1 lead.

Jess Curtis was the most consistent player at the plate for either team, as he had four base hits and three RBIs in the win for the Wildcats.

“Jess Curtis is our leader,” said Hill. “Jess has wanted this for so long. He told me after the super regional, ‘Coach, I’ve not played at UVU yet my high school career. Thank you.’”

Union made a short run in the sixth inning with a triple from Gannon Labrum that scored two runs, but it wasn’t enough. Richfield advances in bracket play and Hill said his team is fully embracing the underdog mentality.

“We’re embracing it and we want to be the underdogs in every game,” Hill said. “We have something to prove. We have something to prove to ourselves, something to prove to our community and something to prove to everybody who supports us.”

Canyon View 16 North Sanpete 1

It was business as usual for No. 1 Canyon View, as it proved it will be a force to be reckoned with in the 3A tournament by dismantling No. 9 North Sanpete 16-1 in game one of bracket play.

Canyon View scored nine runs in the first inning and added six in the second. It tacked on another run for good measure in the fourth inning.

Canyon View head coach Jason Jacobsen could not have been more pleased with his team’s performance and start to the tournament.

“We couldn’t have asked for a better start. You work so hard to get here all year, and you just never know what nerves and all that type of stuff will show up. Our kids have been calm all year and just confident. They came out and were really swinging at the ball,” said Jacobsen.

Brady Anderson had a stellar game for Canyon View, going 2 for 3 at the plate with three RBIs.

Zach Maine and CJ McClellan also had big performances offensively, with each belting a homer a tallying two RBIs in the win.

Canyon View was aggressive with the bats from the outset and showed incredible pop, driving the ball and getting 16 base hits on the night.

“We were swinging at good pitches, swinging at strikes and just doing damage. There really wasn’t any weak contact. I’ve been on the other side of the scoreline too and there’s just nothing you can do about it sometimes,” Jacobsen said.

“All the credit to our guys. They just had really good approaches and were just waiting for a good ball to hit. We just hit a lot of balls on a line today.”

In addition to getting the job done with the bat, Maine also took to the mound and pitched a solid game. Maine tossed a complete game with one strikeout while only giving up two hits.

Jacobsen knows that while his team was able to get a blowout victory Monday, it will only continue to get tougher as the tournament goes on.

“We hope we can carry the confidence and momentum from this game into the following games. We will of course have confidence from this, but our kids know this was just one game,” he said.

“We still have to come back and do it again tomorrow. Hopefully the bats stay hot, but you have to be ready to win a 3-2 game, too, and we will be.”

1 of 25

2 of 25

3 of 25

4 of 25

5 of 25

6 of 25

7 of 25

8 of 25

9 of 25

10 of 25

11 of 25

12 of 25

13 of 25

14 of 25

15 of 25

16 of 25

17 of 25

18 of 25

19 of 25

20 of 25

21 of 25

22 of 25

23 of 25

24 of 25

25 of 25

Emery 10 Morgan 3

After upsetting Manti in two straight games, No. 12 Emery played spoiler once again, this time pulling off a victory against No. 4 seed Morgan in convincing fashion Monday, 10-3.

Emery got a strong all-around performance from Hayden Abras, who went 2 for 2 with a home run and three RBIs, and he also put together a captivating performance on the mind, pitching six strong innings while striking out seven.

“It was a good, hard-fought win,” said Emery head coach Chase Julian. “Their pitcher was throwing really good to start but we were able to eventually get on him.

“We were just able to start getting single after single after single. We weren’t trying to do too much. We weren’t trying to hit it out of the park. We were just trying to get on base and we were able to do that.”

Morgan got on the board first, scoring in the second and third innings, but Emery quickly answered in the fourth inning with some timely hitting and a string of singles to bust the game open by scoring eight runs in the inning.

For Emery, it was all about staying disciplined while at the plate and not trying to do too much.

“We just quit trying to do too much. We were being aggressive at the plate and getting out in front of balls. We weren’t waiting for balls to come to us. At first we were getting out in front, swinging off balance and then we just kind of stayed in the box and got relaxed and just singled them to death,” said Julian.

Even though Emery may be considered the underdog right now, that doesn’t bother Julian and he knows what his team is capable of doing in the tournament.

“We have the never say die attitude and we just keep getting after it,” he said. “These boys are awesome and they’re going to fight until the last out.

“I never like to be the underdog but I really don’t care as long as we’re in the fight. We just want to be here. Give us a chance and we’ll make the most of it.”