No. 2 Desert Hills defeated No. 7 Crimson Cliffs 7-6 on a walk-off RBI single by Issac Swanson in the bottom of the seventh inning Thursday to win in an elimination game in the 4A state baseball tournament and advance to the best of three championship series, where it will face top-seeded Snow Canyon.
“Crimson Cliffs is a great program. We knew that they were going to be a really tough team. All of their coaches are great coaches, so, I mean, hats off to them, but we knew it was a rivalry. You know, that’s just how it’s gonna be for years to come,” said Desert Hills head coach Jagun Leavitt.
“It’s exciting. The kids are excited about it, and they’re not scared. They’re willing to go right at it.”
Desert Hills starting pitcher Cohen Fuller tossed a complete game with a strikeout while giving up 11 hits and four walks. In addition, Fuller helped to carry his team at the plate, finishing with a home run and two RBIs in the victory.
No matter how dicey things may have looked at times for Fuller on the mound, there was never a thought from Leavitt that he would be taking him out of the game.
“Not even a thought in our brains,”Leavitt said. “The only time we thought was when he hit 107 (pitches) and he was almost out of pitches (110 is the maximum). He’s a gamer, competitor, and the plan was he’s throwing the whole game, or as much as he could.
“He’s a competitor. He loves his teammates. He loves the program. Good guy. He’s a good kid.”
It was a tightly contest heavyweight battle throughout the duration of the game. Crimson Cliffs didn’t waste any time and got on the scoreboard first with two runs in the top of the first inning, though Desert Hills answered right back in the second inning by scoring three runs to take the lead.
Later, with Desert Hills up 4-3, Crimson Cliffs scored three runs in the top of the sixth to take a 6-4 lead. But not backing down, Desert Hills once again answered, putting up two runs in the bottom half of the inning to tie things up.
After Crimson Cliffs didn’t score in the top of the seventh, Desert Hills got the walk-off hit courtesy of Swanson.
“They get it. They bought in. They understand that the punch back is a big momentum. Also, a good one is zero, throwing a zero up on the board after we score. The beautiful thing is, all these kids are bought into it, so it makes it easier,” said Leavitt.
Heading into the championship series, Leavitt feels strongly that even though most of his players have never experienced playing in a setting of that magnitude before, they are ready for it and are excited for the challenge.
“It’s been a minute since they’ve been in a state championship,” he said. “I don’t think any of these guys have played in the state championship. They got to understand it’s just a normal baseball game.
“If we get too anxious, we’ll struggle. Our bats are too good and we love our pitching, so we shouldn’t be scared of anything. We just got to go one pitch at a time.”