High school baseball: Lehi secures spot in 6A championship series, Mountain Ridge-Corner Canyon meet again today
Mountain Ridge 3, Corner Canyon 1
In their fourth meeting of the season, Mountain Ridge grinded out a gutsy 3-1 win over Corner Canyon in bracket play of the 6A tournament.
After failing to beat Mountain Ridge in each of their three previous meetings, it looked like Corner Canyon may have finally found an answer against Mountain Ridge.
Corner Canyon got out in front early, scoring their lone run of the game in the first inning behind an RBI by Kash Koncar.
It took Mountain Ridge a few innings to get the bats going at the plate, but once they did there was no looking back.
Mountain Ridge took the lead in the bottom of the third inning when with two runners on base, Cooper Goof drilled a double to deep center field for a two-RBI base hit.
Mountain Ridge tacked on an insurance run in the fifth inning on a sac fly by Austin Ellis.
The story of the game, though, was the pitching for Mountain Ridge, who gave up just two hits throughout the entirety of the game. Their starting pitcher, Dylan Singleton, who pitched in the previous game, was on a pitch count and was pulled after pitching three very strong innings, where he gave up just two hits while striking out four. Grayson Riding came on in relief and was near perfect, not giving up a single hit while striking out two and walking just one batter.
“We knew Dillon was going to be good, he’s been good for us all year. We had to go to him. We knew he had a limited pitch count because he pitched yesterday as well, but we had to go to him. We were excited to bring Grayson in. He threw four shutout innings and was awesome. He’s been doing that all year, and we knew what to expect from him. It played out exactly how we were wanting it to,” said Mountain Ridge head coach Brock Whitney.
The two teams will face off again tomorrow in a winner-take-all elimination game. Whitney knows that if his team wants to advance to the championship series, they are going to need to go into the game with the same mindset and attitude that his proved successful against Corner Canyon.
“Survive and advance. That has kind of been our thing. We’ve talked a lot about toughness and that’s what it’s going to take. Our guys showed a lot of grit and overcame some adversity and that’s what baseball is all about,” Whitney said.
For the third year in row, Lehi is on their way to the 6A championship series, coming from behind in the late innings to defeat Riverton 5-2.
Lehi got offensive contributions throughout the entire lineup, getting nine hits on the night from seven different players.
Lehi’s starting pitcher, Kowen Walker, pitched well enough to keep his team in the game. Walker went five innings and struck out two batters while allowing six hits.
“These boys have worked so hard, and they have put in a lot of time and have become a lot tougher than they were at the beginning of the year. There’s a lot of belief in one another, and right now they feel like they can’t be beaten, and at this time of year that’s what you’re hoping for, so it doesn’t surprise me. We’ve come back, been down before and they’re just tough kids,” said Lehi head coach Eric Madsen.
For the majority of the night, it looked like Riverton would be the ones to walk away the victors.
“Early in the game I thought we swung the bats well. Their outfield made some really good plays. They just got to keep going. They really just understand that they have to just keep competing until someone says that it’s over,” said Madsen.
Riverton scored first in the bottom of the fourth when Drake Peirsall scored from third on a groundout by Alex Vernon to take the 1-0 lead.
Lehi’s bats were silent until the sixth inning, when they were able to tie the game up on a double by Cole Ybarra.
Riverton answered in the bottom of the sixth, with Vernon getting his second RBI of the night with a sac fly that scored Kaden Allred.
Suddenly, Lehi found themselves having to come from behind, a position that are very accustomed to.
After the leadoff hitter got on base to start the seventh, Dawson Brown drew a walk. Immediately after, Tanner Heaps was able to reach first on a throwing error by Riverton’s Dylan Zullo.
That error would prove to be very costly, loading the bases with no outs. The very next batter, Gavin Yates, ripped an RBI single to left field, scoring the runner from third and knotting the game up at 2. Following Yates, Ozzie Williams hit a sac fly to left, finally giving Lehi their first lead of the game. Two more runs were able to come home to score on a fielding error by the Riverton third baseman.
“We got fortunate and put in a lot of good at-bats. When we needed it, we were able to break through. The biggest thing I think in that last inning was that the guys knew they were going to win, and they kept fighting until the very end,” added Madsen.
With the win, Lehi punches their ticket to the championship series, where they await the Mountain Ridge/Corner Canyon winner.
With the loss, Riverton sees their season come to a screeching halt in devastating fashion.
