High school baseball: American Fork, Skyridge punch tickets to 6A championship series

Knowing that Mountain Ridge was coming out of the consolation game, Skyridge head coach Ryan Roberts “challenged his team” to get an early lead against the Sentinels on Wednesday. The Falcons rose to that challenge and pressured Mountain Ridge in ways that didn’t always show up cleanly in the scorebook, turning walks, stolen bases and rushed defensive plays into a 13-6 victory. “To get those three in the first inning is huge, and then our bats came alive and we got on some balls pretty good,” Roberts said. “We have some good team speed and some guys that can put some pressure on.” That pressure started immediately with Miles Robinson, who worked a leadoff walk in the first inning before wreaking havoc on the bases. His speed forced Mountain Ridge into hurried throws that allowed two runs to come across. Moments later, Zayden Bye delivered the first big swing of the afternoon, driving a triple into the right-center gap for his first of five RBIs for the game. “Zayden has had kind of an up and down year, but he’s just been a positive, happy kid,” Roberts said. “When he’s had opportunities, he’s tried his best. When he didn’t have opportunities, he was still a great teammate. “He just gets in there and he’ll fight and scrap.” Still, Mountain Ridge refused to disappear quietly. Ryker Morton gave his team life in the third inning with a two-run home run to left that cut into the deficit and injected some energy into the dugout. 6A/5A/4A/3A/2A state tournament scores and schedules Mountain Ridge seemed to be capitalizing on the momentum when it loaded the bases in the fourth inning, but Roberts turned to senior Tate Young on the mound, and Young allowed just one run over the final three innings. “Tate is an amazing kid, because he didn’t even play baseball when he was a freshman.” Roberts said, “He’s got a hard cutter, which is hard for the lefties to face. “Their lefty hitters are the best guys in their lineup I think, and he came in and neutralized those guys.” The Falcons tacked on insurance runs late, with contributions coming throughout the lineup en route to a berth in the 6A championship series this weekend. It will be their first appearance in the series since 2023. The defending 6A champion American Fork Cavemen advanced to the championship series with a 6-2 win over their region rival Lehi Pioneers. American Fork depended on a dominant pitching performance from junior Talon Willardson and some timely hitting to take down Lehi. With the bases loaded, two outs and in a 1-2 count in the second inning, Cavemen sophomore third baseman Jens Price ripped a ball to center field for a double that cleared the bases. “For a sophomore to come in, we’ve challenged him to get tough,” said American Fork coach Jarod Ingersoll. “He did a great job of adjusting, putting the ball in play and passing the baton to the next guy. It was a big swing, and got us going a little bit.” Lehi got a run back an inning later thanks to an RBI double from Elton Hazen, but American Fork would tack on another two runs in the fourth. Ty Holmstead hit his first home run of the season to extend his team’s lead, and Kenny Johnson added an RBI double of his own in the fifth inning. Although the hitting was clutch, the story of the game was Willardson. He pitched 6 1/3 innings and struck out 11 Pioneer batters while allowing just one run. “Talon did a tremendous job of throwing strikes and keeping the hitters off balance,” Ingersoll said. “They’re an unbelievable hitting team. They can put up runs real quick, and he managed that really well. To only give up two runs on those guys is special.” American Fork is no stranger to the finals, having reached the championship series five out of the last six seasons. It has won three state titles in those six years, and will seek its fourth against the Skyridge Falcons starting Friday night.