Maple Mountain 6 Pleasant Grove 5
No. 2 Maple Mountain will have another chance to play for the 5A state championship after it defeated No. 3 Pleasant Grove 6-5 Thursday to move on to the championship series.
Maple Mountain had 10 hits with one error, while Pleasant Grove had nine hits with one error.
Kavyn Carter pitched a complete game for Maple Mountain, striking out two while allowing nine hits.
Kye Ward was key for Maple Mountain at the plate, going 1 for 3 with three RBIs. Jeremiah Hall also played a vital part in the victory, going 3 for 4 with a run scored and an RBI double.
After Pleasant Grove got on the scoreboard with a run in the first inning, Maple Mountain had a big second inning, scoring five runs, and added another in the fourth inning.
Maple Mountain head coach Jeremy Thomas is proud of his players for the amount of work they put in all year that allowed them the opportunity to play in the championship series.
“It’s always exciting to get there, right? We played Pleasant Grove a lot this year and it was back and forth just like we knew it was gonna be,” he said.
“We prepared all season for this, and the guys have worked hard. They deserve a chance to win another title. Now we just gotta go put in the work and get it done again.”
Thomas has strong belief that they have the bats and the pitching to get the job done.
“We tell them all year long when we’re in the weight room at 5 a.m. that there’s not much harder than what they have to do to get their feet out of bed and just get into the weight room consistently at 5 a.m,” he said.
“If they can do that, then really there’s not a pitcher that they can’t hit and there’s not a hitter that they can’t get out. They’re gritty, and they’re really mentally tough, so hopefully that continues.”
Thomas knows that in order to finish the job, he’s going to have to get contributions up and down the lineup.
“Regardless of who we play, if our pitchers can come in and change speeds, throw strikes and if we can eliminate the free bases, we have a chance to win,” he said.
“It’ll be all hands on deck, and we know everybody’s sore, everybody’s tired, and hopefully we get a couple guys that can step up and get it done.”
With the game tied at 9-9 in the bottom of the seventh inning, Spanish Fork’s Pratt Morley took matters into his own hands, powering a home run deep over the right field wall to beat West Field 10-9 and carry his team to the 5A state championship series.
Spanish Fork was quick to pounce on West Field, putting up two runs in the bottom of the first inning and then seemingly breaking the game open with a big 6-run third inning.
However, just like it had done a couple games prior, West Field stormed back in a big way, scoring seven runs in the top of the fifth inning and then one more in the sixth inning to tie the game up before Pratt’s electrifying walk off.
West Field had the bases loaded in the top of the fifth inning with a chance to go ahead, although Grady Garret popped up to short, leaving the game tied much to the delight of the Spanish Fork supporters.
Going through the tournament last year as an unlikely champion as the No. 20 seed, Spanish Fork has proven all season long this year to be a force to be reckoned with and has played every bit like the top seed it is in the 5A tournament.
With another trip to the state championship series secured, Spanish Fork stands just one step away from capturing back-to-back state titles and further cementing itself as one of Utah’s top programs.
As far as West Field is concerned, it may have fallen a couple games short of its ultimate goal but proved it belonged, playing the defending state champs to three 1-run ballgames all coming down to the last inning.
“That was an insane three-game stretch. I mean, back and forth the whole way, just nothing but props to those West Field guys,” said Spanish Fork head coach Hadley Thorpe.
“They competed, wouldn’t go away. We got two big leads on them a couple times and they just wouldn’t go away and just grinded out at-bats. They’re just a super tough team and we have all the respect in the world for those guys.”
Knowing how the previous two games went against West Field, Thorpe knew his team was in a for another tough battle and that no lead is safe.
“We told our guys we were going to have to grind out at-bats because we knew they were going to put up runs. They just got an awesome lineup, 1-9, and luckily we got a pretty good one of our own.”
The last opponent standing in the way of Spanish Fork and back-t0-back championships is a rival they know very well in Maple Mountain.
“Got nothing but respect for Maple Mountain,” Thorpe said. “Just a classic program across the board. Jeremy does an awesome job with his team, but like we always talk about, it’s our 38 versus everybody. We’ll take our 38 against anybody.”