High school baseball: Late fireworks propel Maple Mountain and Brighton into state championship series
Down to its last out, No. 1 seed Brighton found a way to get it done against No. 4 Springville Wednesday at UVU in the 5A state tournament, beating the Red Devils 4-2 on a walk-off three-run home run by junior infielder Jack Saba.
On the other side of the bracket, No. 2 Maple Mountain once again came from behind late to defeat No. 6 Salem Hills, earning a 6-5 victory over the Skyhawks. It was the fourth time this season that the Region 5 foes took the field against one another; the Golden Eagles winning three of the four contests.
“We’re super excited,” Maple Mountain head coach Jeremy Thomas said of the triumph. “One thing that we never did is we never quit. We battled at the plate and came up with a few clutch hits there at the end.”
Heading into the sixth, Salem Hills held a three-run lead over the Golden Eagles and appeared to be in full control. But Maple Mountain flipped things upside down in the bottom of the sixth, putting together a four-run inning that was capped off by a two-run home run from sophomore first baseman Cy Chrisman, his second such hit against the Skyhawks in as many days.
“Once again, AJ (Thomas) finds a way on base, knocks a couple in, and Cy hits him in,” coach Thomas said. “It’s what we’ve done all year.”
Maple Mountain put Salem Hills on the brink of elimination Tuesday with a two-run victory over the Skyhawks. The Golden Eagles scored five runs in their last two go-arounds at the plate to take the lead and ultimately the contest.
Salem Hills needed just four and a half innings Wednesday morning to defeat No. 14 Box Elder and set up a final bout with Maple Mountain. However, the Golden Eagles got the knockout blow later that evening, punching their ticket to the state championship series and ending the Skyhawks’ season.
When asked about his team’s ability to pile on the runs late, Thomas said, “We’ve done it all year, we’ve been a late comeback team. And today we did the same thing. So it’s nothing new to us, we’ve been doing it all year.”
Two comeback wins over Salem Hills in two days has put Maple Mountain in position to play for their first ever state baseball title.
“We’re right where we want to be,” Thomas said. “We’re set with our pitching rotation. … We’re going to have to come and fight and come ready to play.”
In the second game of the evening, Springville shut out top dog Brighton through six innings, holding the Bengals to just three hits up to that point.
Brighton wound up doubling their hit total in the seventh, finishing the night with six hits; the biggest of all coming off the bat of Saba with men patiently waiting on second and third after two straight Bengals batters struck out. Their patience paid off.
Springville scored its first run in the second inning before adding to its advantage in the seventh on a sacrifice fly to left field. Ultimately, it proved to be too little as the Red Devils came up one out shy of the win.
Saba’s heroics lift Brighton to the state title game, where it will face Maple Mountain in the championship series beginning Friday at 4 p.m. The series will be played at UVU, with Game 2 and if necessary Game 3 being played Saturday.
