High school softball: Desert Hills treads new ground in win over Bear River in game one of 4A championship series

The name of the game for this year’s Desert Hills squad is to avenge its previous championship losses. The Thunder made a run to the championship in both of the past two seasons, but each time were denied the elusive crown.

In both of those series, Desert Hills lost game one and failed to make up the ground. This time around, however, it proved that it’s serious about finally breaking the curse.

The Thunder dominated defensively and earned a leg up on defending champion Bear River in a 3-1 game one win Friday.

“Ideally, it puts a little more pressure on the other team,” said Desert Hills coach Heidi Taylor. “It’s what we’ve been mentally focusing on. We prepare, we do little drills mentally, and our talk was ‘We’re winning the first game.’”

Star pitcher Lulu West was the engine behind the entire game for the Thunder. West, who is a UConn commit, dished out 14 strikeouts in the win.

The pitching was huge against Bear River, which was the hottest team offensively after the 4A state tournament. The Bears got mercy-rule wins against every opponent in bracket play, and it was the first time in nearly a month they didn’t score double-digits.

But Desert Hills shut that down because it had a dominant pitcher in West.

“I felt good, my team felt good,” West said. “We were just really hyped, really excited, and we just came out and played our game.

“I felt like my pitches were good. They’re a great team. They have a lot of really great hitters, and we knew they were going to come to play, but we knew that we had to do what we do best, and not try to do anything extra.”

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Offensively, Desert Hills Riley Greene got things started with an inside-the-park home run for a 1-0 lead.

Bear River quickly matched the run in the second inning off the only error Desert Hills had all game. Still, being the first to strike was a big swing mentally for the Thunder.

“That was huge for momentum, because we get that first run, it takes a little pressure off,” Taylor said. “If you get that first run, then you can breathe a little bit. But they came right back and scored again. It was a huge deal because it would suck to be down 1-0.”

It stayed a 1-1 stalemate until the fifth inning. Once again, it was Greene who helped break the tie. With a runner on first, a double from Greene, and an error from Bear River, a runner got home.

Then, an RBI single from Bailey Lee brought Greene home and solidified the 3-1 win for the Thunder.

With Desert Hills’ recent history in mind, going into the final day of the championship series with a win already in hand is a game-changer for the Thunder.

But they also know that the series is far from over.

“We know that because we took it to three last year and lost the heartbreaker,” Taylor said. “But, we did business today. We’re going to have fun the rest of the day, and then our games not until (4:30) tomorrow. So, we’ll get that mental focus back on.”