WEST JORDAN — For the fifth time in school history, the Snow Canyon Warriors are the Utah state champions in baseball.
The No. 2 seed rode an undefeated state tournament to the crown, besting No. 5 Mountain Crest for the second time in two days to claim the crown. A bloop fly ball fell into the glove of right fielder Sam Lindsey for the third out of the seventh inning, giving the Warriors the 6-4 victory.
The final out was fitting, as it was the sophomore Lindsey that stood out as a central figure in the game. He drove in a pair of runs, including the team’s fifth and eventual game-winner.
Snow Canyon never trailed but constantly felt pressure from the Mustangs. The Warriors scored three runs in the bottom of the third to open the scoring but immediately watched Mountain Crest score two in the top of the fourth. The teams traded one-run frames over the next two-and-a-half innings as the score difference never broke three runs again.
Mountain Crest got within one in the top of the sixth in a runners-at-the-corners, two-out situation, drawing a rundown between first and second. Snow Canyon traded the run for the third out of the inning, taking a risk by letting the Mustangs get within one and the middle of the order due up in the seventh inning.
It paid off when pitcher Luke Anderson ended the game in four pitches.
A day after Snow Canyon recorded a season-low two hits, they mustered only one the first time through the order against Mountain Crest starter Lance Welch.
The second time through the order, however, they made the adjustment to the lefty. They went 6-for-8 with a hit-by-pitch in their second at-bats against Welch, resulting in four runs.
Anderson, then playing center field, was hit by a pitch before Isaac Lyon, Landon Frei and Mason Strong hit back-to-back-to-back singles for the three-run rally in the third. Lindsey tripled to lead off the fourth.
Lyon started on the mound, throwing 4.1 innings and allowing three runs before Anderson finished off the last 2.2.
Lyon, Frei, Strong, Lindsey and Easton Rigby each recorded two hits. Frei drove in a game-leading three runs, including the team’s sixth with a triple of his own in the sixth.
It is Snow Canyon’s first state title since 2013, the second straight for the school. It’s their fourth under head coach Reed Secrist.
The team finished 28-4, which Secrist said is the school’s best single-season record.
The Warriors graduate 10 seniors as champions, dotted with commitments to play at the next level.
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