High school baseball: Bountiful finds ‘gamers,’ rallies to beat Olympus

Hayden Curtis has been the Bountiful baseball coach for less than two years, and already he has been able to point out important attributes to certain players on his team.

“Gamers,” he calls them.

These are individuals on his squad who make big plays when it counts. On Tuesday afternoon, they were easy to find as Bountiful rallied from a five-run deficit to beat Olympus 13-11 in a Region 6 game on the Redhawks’ home field.

Jake Castleberry, Mickey Willis and Tegan Barnes had three hits apiece and Bountiful got a couple of run-scoring doubles by Jaxton Jenkins and Barnes in the bottom of the sixth inning to help the Redhawks hand the Titans their first loss in region play.

“That’s how Bountiful goes,” Curtis said. “We have that late-game magic.”

On a sunny, warm afternoon on Bountiful’s new field on the hills overlooking the city, the Redhawks rallied from a 10-5 deficit.

Trailing 10-9 in the sixth, the Redhawks got their first two runners on base and then Josh Haslem’s suicide squeeze bunt scored Castleberry to tie the game. Later, Daxton Jenkins and Teagan Barnes added run-scoring doubles to help the Redhawks get some breathing room and hand the Titans their first loss in region play.

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Curtis recalled how Bountiful scored nine runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to beat Park City three weeks ago, and he noted no lead seems to be safe when his squad has so many “gamers” who have proven they can come through when necessary.

Willis, for example, smacked a two-run homer in the fifth inning to move the Redhawks closer, and then showed his pitching talents, allowing  only a single run over the last three innings to give Bountiful a win in the opener of the three-game series, which continues Wednesday at Olympus High School and then the teams return for a game at Bountiful Friday.

“We had a lot of ‘gamers’ today,” said Curtis, an Olympus graduate who used to coach there before taking the Bountiful helm in 2024. “We didn’t play our best today but we still managed to beat one of the best teams in the state. That’s a sign of who these kids are.”

Indeed. It certainly looked like Olympus had this game won. Even though the Redhawks started the game with home runs by Castleberry and Tait Caldwell, they fell behind 10-5 due to pitching issues. Corey Erickson began well but then gave up five bases on balls in three innings. Bountiful was also guilty of three balks.

At one point, Olympus had 10 runs on only three hits. The Titans’ pitching wasn’t as dreadful but they allowed 13 hits, including three homers. Offensively, Nick Sorensen had a couple of hits and three RBIs.