High school baseball: Skyridge, Mountain Ridge, American Fork, Syracuse win in 6A tournament bracket play Monday
Monday’s 6A bracket play was played at UVU’s UCCU Ballpark in Orem.
Skyridge 1, Pleasant Grove 0
After having two consecutive postseason losses to Pleasant Grove, Skyridge finally got revenge with a slim 1-0 victory in 6A bracket play.
It was a tough battle between the Falcons and the Vikings, which was largely fought on the pitcher’s mound.
Skyridge pitcher Tyler Ball and Pleasant Grove pitcher Brayden Marx made life difficult for their opposing hitters.
Ball had 12 strikeouts while Marx had 13, resulting in a 0-0 score in the seventh inning.
It looked good for Skyridge in the bottom of the seventh, the Falcons had a runner on third base with no outs.
Pleasant Grove did not waiver and the Vikings rallied to three outs from Marx threw two strikeouts and contributed to a tagout on an attempted steal at home.
After missing a crucial opportunity to score it seemed that Pleasant Grove might take the win, but Skyridge made sure to keep its confidence high.
“That’s the sign of a good team, to be able to get the energy back to us,” said Skyridge coach Ryan Roberts.
“The message to them is strike one, after the inning is over if you can get strike one and the first guy out it can change the whole inning.”
Skyridge held the Vikings off in the top of the eighth, and in the bottom of the eighth Dalton Young hit Skyridge’s first double of the game. With Young on second, Crew Schenk stepped up to hit for the Falcons.
Schenk hit it long to right field, hitting Young home and securing the 1-0 win.
“You definitely dream of it as a kid,” said Schenk.
“I’m just glad and blessed to be in that opportunity. It definitely helps us get some confidence to just keep fighting, put a bunch of games together, and try our best to win them.”
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“We’ve got guys and I trust every single one of them and we’ll do our best to execute whatever coach Roberts tells us to do”
Coach Roberts said his job was clear, to keep his players calm and focused.
“In five innings our swings at the plate were the wrong swings,” said Roberts.
“They were big swings and guys are swinging harder than they need to and we told them to calm down and just play. We did a little better and it helped a little bit that Marx was probably getting a little tired too, but we told them to just relax.”
“That’s been our energy all year, to enjoy the game and have fun which I thought we did for the most part. But it’s hard to translate that to a big state game is hard to do. Especially with one of the top pitchers on the west coast. To get that first win under our belt is huge for us.”
Mountain Ridge 10, Bingham 3
Mountain Ridge and Bingham faced off three times in the regular season with the Sentinels winning two of those matchups.
So when the two teams matched up in the first round of 6A bracket play, Mountain Ridge came ready to play.
The Sentinels came out swinging, scoring two runs in the first inning, and two runs in the third.
Mountain Ridge upped the ante with five runs in the third inning, headlined by Jaxon Reiser who had a home run with two runners on base.
“It feels really good, our pitching is really good, everyone is hitting well, and there’s no dead spot in the lineup,” said Reiser.
“I just stay calm, do what I can for the team and whatever happens, happens. We’re pretty hot right now and every game so far we’ve been rolling so we feel confident.”
With a 9-0 lead after three innings, Mountain Ridge seemed to put the Miners out of the game.
The Sentinels cooled off and Bingham scored two runs in the fourth and one run in the fifth to bring it within 9-3. The Miners ended the fourth inning with bases loaded which could’ve spelled disaster for Mountain Ridge.
“We were able to get out early, get up on them early, competed early, but we died towards the end, and we can’t afford to do that moving forward,” said Mountain Ridge coach Brock Whitney.
“We have to continue to keep the gas pedal down and that’s what we talked about after the game, but I liked how we competed today.
In the bottom of the fifth, it was none other than Reiser who stepped up to the plate and hit his second home run of the game for the 10-3 lead.
“Jaxon’s been awesome for us all year, he a tough out and a tough at-bat every time at the plate,” said Whitney.
With the win over the Miners, Mountain Ridge will face off against top-seeded Skyridge in day two of 6A bracket play.
The Sentinels played the Falcons earlier this season and lost 9-8. Mountain Ridge is hoping to raise up to the opportunity and get revenge.
“We played Skyridge early in the year, we know we’re going to have to play one of our best games,” said Whitney.
“It’s going to be a good matchup. At this point confidence doesn’t matter, it just matters who has the better game.”
American Fork 9, Westlake 3
American Fork beat Westlake in all three previous meets this year, but when the score was tied 3-3 in the top of the sixth it seemed like the Thunder would finally prevail.
It was the Thunder who struck first with a run in the third inning and the Cavemen found themselves in trouble when Westlake had the bases loaded with one out.
The American Fork defense rallied, and Courtland Taylor pitched back-to-back strikeouts to avoid giving up a run, then the Cavemen went on to score three runs in the following two innings.
That seemed to be the theme for American Forks' 9-3 victory, Westlake would be in a place to do some damage, then the Cavemen answered back, and that’s especially true in the sixth inning.
American Fork held a 3-1 lead heading into the top of the sixth inning. The Thunder’s three opening at-bats were two singles and a walk, resulting in loaded bases with no outs.
With their backs against the wall, the Cavemen held Westlake to two runs.
“They had bases loaded and no outs, I thought we really limited the damage,” said American Fork head coach Jared Ingersoll.
“Credit to the defense and the pitcher’s ability to throw strikes and compete. The defense locked them up, they got a couple of runs and it could’ve been a lot more than that.”
“We prevented them from getting three which was a big inning for us. That was one of our goals and our guys did a good job of buckling down and getting serious.”
After escaping the top of the sixth with a 3-3 tie, The Cavemen rallied for a six-run inning to put the game out of Westlake’s reach.
American Fork’s Dax Watts had a huge double with the bases loaded which brought in all three runners.
“We just trust each other, everyone on this team could be the best player on another team,” said Watts.
“If we just trust each other base hits will come and don’t ever press, that’s our mindset. We knew we were going to get it done. We can’t let the thought of us not getting it done ever creep in.”
“We just have to remember we’re the best team in this tournament. We’re feeling good, obviously, we struggled a little bit, but adversity is a good thing for us and we’re going to be ready.”
After the win, American Fork is looking forward to the rest of the 6A playoff bracket.
“It's always big getting a win on the big field. We just have to keep finding ways to get better every day. We’re excited to be in the winner's bracket and we’ll be ready to go tomorrow,” said Ingersoll.
Syracuse 7, Riverton 6
In the night cap of Day 1 of bracket play of the 6A state tournament, No. 14 seed Syracuse continued its unlikely march through the tournament as it used a five-run sixth inning to upset defending state champ and No. 6 Riverton.
Dom Jonatakis had a great night on the mound for the Titans as he struck out seven in 5 2⁄3 innings of work in earning the win.
Jake Hopkins had a great day at the plate setting the table for the teammates behind him in the lineup as he went 3 for 4, with Austin Burton delivering the big hits as he went 2 for 5 with a home run and three RBIs.
With the win, Syracuse moves on in the winners bracket of the state tournament and will face American Fork, while Riverton will face Westlake in an elimination game.
