High school baseball: Crimson Cliffs wins back-to-back 4A titles
Crimson Cliffs held a 13-0 lead with two outs on Snow Canyon in the bottom of the fifth inning. One more out would secure the 4A state title and its back-to-back state championship.
The Mustangs’ pitcher Beau Sampson was also at the tail end of his first no-hitter of the year. However, Sampson wanted to use the moment to celebrate his teammates and he was replaced on the mound by Aaron Morris.
“Right before I got in, I went up to my coach and I said ‘Hey I want to give our senior closer one last out,’ said Sampson.
“It’s not all just about me throwing a no-hitter, I wanted to get my teammate one last out because he deserves it. So, I told him I’ll go out there for a few outs, and then you take me out because I want to give him one last one.”
“That’s exactly what happened, and he did the job.”
It was a picture-perfect moment as the Crimson Cliffs crowd gave Sampson a standing ovation as he walked to the dugout.
“I wanted these guys to leave their last high school moment to everybody up there that’s supported us so far this year and since we’ve been open and Beau earned that,” said Crimson Cliffs head coach Justin Abbott.
But before the Mustangs could win the championship, they had to overcome an early bracket loss to Green Canyon. Crimson Cliffs needed to dig deep and find a way to make a run through its bracket.
The Mustangs went above and beyond, getting consecutive wins on Ridgeline, Green Canyon, Dixie twice, and Snow Canyon twice, all while outscoring opponents a combined 56-11.
“I think it just shows that we’re resilient, man,” said Sampson.
“We can compete, and we don’t get complacent. We had a bullseye on our back this entire year, everyone wanted to beat us. We just came out here and I had no doubt in my mind that we were going to win.”
After Friday night’s victory in the first game of the series, everyone on Crimson Cliffs knew it was only a matter of time before it got another trophy.
“I didn’t sleep much last night; I woke up really early,” said Abbott.
“I got on my phone and wrote something down and told them I wrote ‘You guys are champions today’ because I knew that these guys were going to be ready for the moment. I’m proud of them.”
Crimson Cliffs got contributions from everyone on the field. Petey Soto had a triple with two RBIs. Ty Maynard and Trey Evans each had an RBI double.
And once again the Mustangs’ Brexten Starley came up big with two RBIs on a double and a home run.
“It’s really easy to get in your head in this sport,” said Starley.
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“It means the world, there’s nobody else in the world that I’d rather do it with than these guys. I’m really grateful.”
Crimson Cliffs back-to-back title didn’t come easily. Abbott knew his boys were in for a long season before this moment.
“It’s one of the hardest things to do, to be honest,” said Abbott.
“We talked about it from day one, we’re going to see everybody’s best any day of the week. It’s tough to do but if we were going to do it it’s going to be with this group.”
