High school baseball: Lehi and Corner Canyon upsets propel schools to 6A semifinal

No. 5 seed Lehi baseball took care of No. 1 American Fork 4-2 Tuesday at BYU in the 6A state tournament while No. 10 Corner Canyon toppled another higher seeded team when it beat No. 6 Fremont 10-5 to keep its magical postseason run going strong.

The Chargers held the worst seed of teams entering bracket play, overcoming odds to get that far before beating No. 2 Davis and then Fremont to advance to the state semifinals as underdogs in all five of its tournament games.

When that fact was pointed out to Corner Canyon head coach Jeff Eure, he said, “Not in our eyes. We believe in ourselves.”

Eure and his squad have every reason to believe in themselves, as their confidence seems to grow with each game.

“(I’m) just super proud of our team,” Eure said. “They’ve worked hard all year and they have each other’s back and they just play the game the right way.”

Tuesday marked just the second time the Silverwolves and the Chargers had ever played, the first coming nine years prior when Freemont shut out Corner Canyon.

That was far from the case Tuesday when this year’s iteration of Chargers exploded for seven runs in the second. Corner Canyon senior first baseman Rylan Dunn got the scoring going for his team, tying the game on a two run home run to begin the inning.

Entering the second, the Chargers faced a 0-2 deficit. However, the Draper school ended the inning after sending 12 batters to the plate, manufacturing six hits and earning all seven runs.

The flurry of runs has become something of the norm for Corner Canyon, which has scored six or more in a single inning in three consecutive games.

“Hitting’s contagious,” Eure said. “Its next guy up and they just keep battling.”

Still, Fremont inched its way back into the game, scoring one run in three straight innings to cut the lead to two.

The Silverwolves’ best chance to retake the lead came in the fifth with the bases loaded and just one out. Some nifty pitching from Corner Canyon freshman reliever Lincoln Eure kept Fremont scoreless in the inning, slamming the door shut on the Silverwolves who wouldn’t score again the rest of the contest.

The Chargers added to their cushion in the final two innings, adding a run in the sixth and two more in the seventh to push their lead back out to five.

“We’re just playing the game,” coach Eure said. “One pitch at a time. And we’re enjoying this and grateful for the opportunity.”

There will be more opportunities ahead for Corner Canyon as the school waits for its next opponent pending the winner of tomorrow morning’s contest between Fremont and No. 3 Mountain Ridge. The victor of that game will begin play in the afternoon against the Chargers at 4:30 p.m.

Lehi’s win over American Fork gives the Pioneers the second bid into the semifinal.

American Fork got on the board first, scoring two runs in the second. Aside from that, the Cavemen struggled offensively, getting shut out in all six other innings.

Similarly, Lehi scored all four of its runs with two outs in the sixth. Things began to unravel for the Caveman late in the inning as the Pioneers got their bats going and took advantage of two American Fork errors.

The Pioneers held their region rival to their lowest run output in over a month, handing the Cavemen their first loss since April 23.

With the win, Lehi earns its second victory over American Fork on the year after going 1-2 against the Region 3 champion Cavemen in the regular season.

American Fork will face No. 4 Riverton tomorrow with another shot at Lehi on the line. The Pioneers will play the winner of that game a few hours later starting at 7 p.m.