High school softball: West Jordan caps dream season with 5A state title, first-ever girls title in school history

In the 44-year history of West Jordan High School, its girls sports programs had won a grand total of zero state championships — until Friday.

The Jaguars dug out of an early hole against top-seed Salem Hills by scoring five runs in the fifth inning, and then star pitcher Rita Tavita — a future BYU Cougar — took care of the rest for the championship-clinching 6-5 victory at BYU.

West Jordan won Game 1 of the best-of-3 5A state championship series on Thursday night 13-7, and then completed the sweep on Friday for the historic state championship.

“It’s just a big honor, and it’s really exciting. I’m just grateful for all the opportunities I’ve had here,” said Tavita, who struck out six on the diamond she’ll call her college home beginning this fall.

Tavita transferring to West Jordan from West last season helped transform the Jaguars program. It’s a program that’s traditionally been a .500 to sub-.500-type team, but with Tavita’s wicked arsenal of pitches and a powerful lineup, the Jaguars were a surprising 5A juggernaut this season.

Second-year coach McHailee Danner knew the potential of this year’s team, and pushed it from Day 1.

“It feels amazing, but really the girls put in all the work,” Danner said. “It’s all on them. You know, they showed up to every practice. They showed up academically, they put in the work.

“I was not easy on them at all, so it was really awesome to see how that hard work comes out on the field.”

1 of 22

2 of 22

3 of 22

4 of 22

5 of 22

6 of 22

7 of 22

8 of 22

9 of 22

10 of 22

11 of 22

12 of 22

13 of 22

14 of 22

15 of 22

16 of 22

17 of 22

18 of 22

19 of 22

20 of 22

21 of 22

22 of 22

West Jordan fell behind Thursday 3-0 after two innings to Salem Hills, which was looking to force a winner-take-all Game 3 later on Friday night.

Danner said her team has been resilient all year, so players weren’t fazed by the early deficit.

“Coming here is tough. Trying to beat these teams is tough, and we knew it would be a hard-fought journey, and they did not stop fighting 100% of the time. Even if we were ahead, whether we’re down, whether we’re behind in the count or ahead,” said a soaked Danner after the game as her players doused her with two coolers of water.

They wanted to soak her after winning the region, and she said no. They wanted to soak her after qualifying for the final eight, and she said no.

“I said you have to win the state championship if you want to dump water on me,” said Danner.

It looked early on like Salem Hills had other plans, as it got off to a great start, scoring once in the first inning and twice more in the second on RBI singles from Samaya Haveron, Shay Loveridge and Camryn Guest.

West Jordan nicked a run across in the third inning to make it a 3-1 game on a Tavita RBI single following a leadoff triple by Arianna Fjeldsted, but the big damage came two innings later as West Jordan’s first six batters reached base safely.

Hailey Fox’s bases loaded single up the middle tied the game at 3-3, and then two batters later, Lafiana Fifita popped a bases-loaded bloop single over the second baseman’s head to give the Jaguars their first lead of the game at 4-3.

West Jordan wasn’t done yet either, but not without some controversy. Abigail Bunker hit a sac fly to right field that scored Fox, but Salem Hills’ coaches were adamant the runner left third base too early on the tag up and should’ve been called out.

After an umpire conference, however, they disagreed as the lead increased to 5-3. West Jordan then tacked on one more run in the fifth on an RBI ground out by Taylor Hughes for the 6-3 lead.

“The momentum was ours going into that inning, so we just wanted to keep it going, score some runs, and we were hitting the ball well, just to people, so we just needed to make contact, good contact, and that’s what we did,” said Tavita, who finished 3 for 4 at the plate.

A West Jordan error in the bottom of the fifth inning helped Salem Hills score twice to cut the lead to 6-5, but it left the tying run stranded on base.

Six outs from a state championship, Tavita was as focused as ever in the circle.

“She wants the ball 100% of the time, and that’s all she told me. She said, ‘Coach, give it to me. I got this,’” said Danner.

Four years of pitching in big games prepared Tavita for those last six outs. As a freshman at West, she helped lead her team to the 6A state championship series at BYU, but lost in a sweep.

“Our freshman year, I was so young, I didn’t have the experience that I do now, and it definitely motivated me to come out and win and compete,” Tavita said.

That loss, and knowing she helped West Jordan do something historic, made celebrating with her teammates at Gail Miller Field all the more special.