High school baseball: 5A state tournament Monday recap — Brighton, Orem, Maple Mountain, Spanish Fork advance

This story will be updated.

Brighton 10, Olympus 0

It was a clean day one from Region 6 champion Brighton, as it had 14 base-hits en route to a dominant 10-0 mercy-rule win over No. 7 Olympus in day one of 5A bracket play.

The Bengals are on the hunt for their first state championship since 1991, and they showed up to this year’s state tournament with a focused mindset.

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“They’re back here (at the state tournament) with a little bit of a different intent,” said Brighton head coach Mark Kleven. “A little bit more businesslike and not too big for the moment. They’ve been that way all year.”

Brighton’s defense was locked-in all game and allowed only four Olympus base hits. Senior Josh Mawhinney played all game at the mound for the Bengals and tallied eight strikeouts in the win.

When the Titans connected on Mawhinney’s pitches, more often than not the Bengals’ defense made plays behind him.

“Hats off to Josh Mawhinney,” Kleven said. “He went out, didn’t give up a run and they played pretty good defense behind it. You love to see it.”

It took a few innings for the offensive output to match the defensive intensity, but once the Bengals got started they couldn’t be stopped.

Brighton got the ball rolling with two runs in the fourth inning, four runs in the fifth inning and finished it off with three runs in the sixth inning.

River Schmidt and JC Garza each led Brighton with three RBIs. Garza had a walk off single in the sixth inning which got two runs home. Easton Fry also tallied two RBIs with a double and a triple.

“One through nine, everybody believes in each other,” Kleven said. “Everybody’s ready to do whatever it takes, whether it’s get hit by a pitch, take ball four, put the ball in play with the situation or bunt. When they take that approach, it’s pretty scary what these guys can do.”

Orem 11, Salem Hills 9

When Tayden Ka’awa walked up to home plate with two outs in a 9-9 tie in the bottom of the seventh, Orem head coach Carl Hermansen knew he didn’t want anyone else in that position.

Ka’awa delivered a walk-off home run to right field and the Tigers survived the upset against No. 19 Salem Hills with an 11-9 win in 5A bracket play.

“Tayden with that right there was unbelievable,” Hermansen said. “He’s been swinging the heck out of the ball for us all year. I didn’t expect anything less. I wanted them to pitch to him because I think he has a shot at it anytime.”

It was a tug-of-war throughout the entirety of the nearly 3-hour ball game between the Skyhawks and the Tigers. Between both teams there were 30 total base hits in Monday’s game.

Orem had control of the lead through most of the first four innings as it built up a 5-7 lead, but a three-run rally in the fifth inning allowed Salem Hills to take an 8-7 lead.

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Bracken Lindley led the way for Salem Hills with three base hits with two doubles and four RBIs. Salem Hills strengthened its lead further in the top of the seventh, scoring one run.

With its backs against the wall, Orem’s Merrick Bostock had a huge RBI triple which was just short of a home run to score first, but Cy Berge recorded the RBI single to tied it 9-9.

Salem Hills got the second out just before Ka’awa stepped up to hit the walk-off homerun and beat its Region 7 foe.

No. 6 Orem advances in bracket play and will face No. 2 Brighton on Tuesday.

“You get to the final eight and we have four teams from our region,” Hermansen said. “We’ve seen Salem and we’ve seen these guys so many times, so we knew it was going to be a war.”

Maple Mountain 10, Viewmont 0

Spanish Fork 7, Cyprus 3

The 5A baseball state tournament came to BYU Monday with No. 1 seed Maple Mountain needing just six innings to get past No. 9 Viewmont 10-0 in the first of two bracket play evening contests.

Later that night, No. 20 Spanish Fork upset No. 5 Cyprus 7-3 extending its win streak to six and keeping its improbable run going strong.

The hit of the night came from Maple Mountain junior first baseman Cy Chrisman who put an end to the game with a walk-off grand slam. The Oklahoma State commit belted the ball over the centerfield wall for his 18th home run of the year – a single season state record – and a dramatic blowout victory.

“That’s actually our third walk-off home run like that this year,” Maple Mountain head coach Jeremy Thomas said. “It’s a lot of fun. … It can get a little bit crazy, but that’s the name of the game. It’s a game and it’s a lot of fun to play.”

The Golden Eagles made sure the fun was one-sided, handing the Vikings their worst loss of the season. Viewmont had not lost by double digits all season and had only been shutout once.

Senior pitcher Chase Johnston had a lot to do with the shutout, going the distance for Maple Mountain.

“Chase has been a starter for us for four years, since he was a freshman,” Thomas said. “He’s the mark of a starting pitcher. He’s the guy that you want to have on the mound in big games, because you know what you’re going to get. It’s real consistent and he’s going to go in and compete his tail off to do whatever it takes to win.”

All said, the BYU commit struck out 13 batters and gave up just two hits in the shortened six inning contest.

“Chase pitched a great, great game on the mound and pounded the zone and kept his pitch count down,” Thomas said. “Then we got some timely hitting in that fourth and sixth innings. When we can do that, we’re tough to beat.”

The Golden Eagles scored five runs in the fifth and four in the sixth, getting eight of their 11 hits in those two innings.

“We grinded out good at bats,” Thomas said. “Those good at bats allowed us to get some hard contact.”

Spanish Fork hit the ball well too, putting it in play on 13 different occasions Monday against Cyprus. The Pirates four hits were not enough to keep up with the Dons, who continue their hot streak that has kept their season alive.

Cyprus briefly took a 2-3 lead at the end of the third, but then watched as Spanish Fork regained the upper hand in the fourth. After the Pirates’ two-run third, the Dons held the school scoreless and hitless the rest of the night.

Spanish Fork will try to keep its magic going when it faces region rival Maple Mountain tomorrow at 7 p.m. with the winner moving on to the tournament semifinal series. The Golden Eagles won the pair of regular season meetings.