High school baseball: Lehi routs Corner Canyon in Game 1 of 6A championship series

In a dominating performance, No. 5 Lehi routed No. 10 Corner Canyon in Game 1 of the 6A baseball championship 11-1 on Friday at UVU.

Behind a strong pitching performance from Braden Hansen and timely hitting from the offense, Lehi had all of the momentum on its side for the majority of the game.

Lehi got a complete game from Hansen, who kept Corner Canyon’s bats in check, pitching five strong innings and getting seven strikeouts while only allowing three hits.

Lehi also got plenty of production at the plate, led by Cooper Williams, who went 2 for 3 with two RBIs and two runs scored.

“I was really pleased with Brayden Hansen out there. For him to go out in the first game of the state championship and pitch on three days rest was awesome. He really pitched good, controlled the game and did what we needed to do,” said Lehi head coach Eric Madsen.

Much like Corner Canyon has throughout a big chunk of the tournament, the Chargers found a way to take the early lead, scoring in the top of the first on a fielding error by the Lehi defense that allowed a runner to score.

It didn’t take long for Lehi to answer, as the Pioneers scored three runs in the bottom of the second on back-to-back-to-back at-bats.

First, Williams hit a line drive single up the middle that scored two runs. Immediately after that, Kade Bailey scored from third on a wild pitch that got all the way to the backstop.

To cap off the inning, Dawson Brown sent the Lehi crowd into a frenzy when he drilled a pitch to deep left field and over the fence for a two-run homerun.

“I just like where this club is at right now. Our No. 1 and No. 2 guys are hurt but you wouldn’t notice it because the next guy is stepping up. That is what I’m most pleased with is that the next guy is stepping up. When someone’s gone down the next guy’s gone up,” said Madsen.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Lehi’s offense exploded. The Pioneers got hit after hit and eventually scored eight runs, which made it an 11-1 game and put the 10-run rule into effect.

Madsen knows his team is going to get Corner Canyon’s best stuff in Game 2 of the series, and if the Pioneers want to take home the championship they need to approach the upcoming game the same way they did Game 1.

“If it’s a one-run game or a game like the one we had today it doesn’t matter,” he said. “We have to come out like we did today and do everything that we need to do to come out and play.

“You just never know in baseball, and we have to approach it the same way we did tonight and just go out and win.”