High school baseball: Maple Mountain relies on patient hitting to win Game 1 of 5A championship series

No. 2-seed Maple Mountain earned a 12-9 come-from-behind victory over No. 1-seed Brighton to take a 1-0 series lead in the 5A Championship Series Friday at UVU.

From the get-go things went awry for both teams, surprisingly with both their No. 1 pitchers on the mound. Brighton ace Case Beames allowed singles to Max Walker and Cy Chrisman and then loaded the bases with a walk to Logen Bringhurst.

Sawyer Leifson then hit a sacrifice fly to left field for the first run of the game in favor of Maple Mountain.

Brighton came out swinging in its half of the first two innings, putting up three runs in each, with Riley Brown hitting an RBI double in both of those innings.

But Maple Mountain was able to maintain composed through the storm thanks to its game plan.

“We do a pretty good scouting report on every team, and our goal today was to be patient at the plate and to get their starter out of the game as quickly as possible,” head coach Jeremy Thomas said.

That plan worked to perfection as Beames reached his pitch count limit with two outs in the fourth inning. As far as patience at the plate, Maple Mountain batters walked 16 times and were hit four more times for a total of 20 free bases.

Another key for the Golden Eagles was consistent scoring, as they put up at least one run in every inning except the sixth. Momentum really started to shift their way in the fifth inning as they put six runs on the board to take an 11-8 lead.

Maple Mountain loaded the bases for the third consecutive inning, but this time took advantage of it with consecutive two-RBI singles by Bennett Averett and Colby Warren.

“A couple key hits. Guys stayed back, we got their starter out of the game and then we were able to hit the off-speed guy,” Thomas said. “Our approach went from rolling over ground balls to [the] opposite field gap. That’s what ended up ultimately scoring those runs.”

Meanwhile, Maple Mountain pitchers were able to quell the Brighton offense after the first two innings. Starting pitcher Cooper Johnston went four innings and struck out eight batters, and Leifson entered for the fifth and sixth innings and struck out three.

Averett came in to finish the game on the mound and tallied his sixth save of the season.

“He’s closed it out all year,” Thomas said of Averett. “He’s come out and closed three games this tournament. He’s a bulldog out there, and he seems to get clutch hits when we need them as well.

“You can’t complain when you have a center fielder like Bennett”.