Maple Mountain completed their climb out of the one-loss bracket by defeating Orem for the second time in as many days, this time by a score of 5-4 in walk-off fashion Thursday. The Golden Eagles will face off against Spanish Fork in a best-of-three series on Friday and Saturday to decide who takes home the state championship.
The Dons had the day off after winning last night, giving a day of rest to their pitching staff in preparation for Friday. Meanwhile the Golden Eagles and Tigers had strategic decisions to make every inning. With the season ending on Saturday, any pitcher who threw 60 pitches wouldn’t be eligible for the title game. Coaches had to choose their path, throw the talent you have available and figure out the rest when you get there, or try and save a few arms to enhance your odds to win the whole thing.
The Golden Eagles worked to keep as many pitchers available as possible. Cole Rollins got the start, he allowed one hit in three innings pitched. Zack Ellis came in for relief and allowed just two hits in his quest to complete the game.
Cole Rollins scored the first run of the game for Maple Mountain on a smart base running play. On second base with two outs, Cooper Littledike hit a grounder that featured a fielder’s choice that resulted in the final out of the inning, but not before Rollins had rolled around third base to score. They added three runs in the fourth inning, first on a single by Nolan Bird. Then three straight batters were hit by pitches, resulting in another two runs.
Ellis was dominant down the stretch, getting his team to within one strike from a win in the top of the seventh inning. Tanner Finch snuck a single to put the pressure on. Ellis was taken out so he could pitch on Saturday and another pitcher was brought in. Within 10 pitches, Taylor Gill hit a grand slam deep over the left field wall, erasing a four-run deficit with one crack of the bat.
The Golden Eagles kept their composure despite giving up the lead, they had their three outs to work with in the bottom half of the frame, and they didn’t need four runs, they just needed one.
“You got an out, you got a strike, you got a chance,” said coach Gary Miner. “I often say, ‘So what? So what if they just did this? What can we do next?’”
Maple Mountain battled through the inning until Tyler Nelson got up. Nelson was scheduled to be the sixth batter of the inning and the only way the sixth batter gets up in a tie game is if there are two outs with the bases loaded.
On Tuesday night, Maple Mountain lost to Orem 6-5 and it forced them down into the one-loss bracket. They were down one in the bottom of the seventh with the bases loaded and just one out. They needed a clutch at bat from Nelson and instead he went down on strikes looking as the Tigers would go on to win the game.
“Coming up on that last at bat I thought this is the same situation but we are going to have a different outcome right here, we are going to win this game,” said Nelson who delivered this time around. A hard-hit grounder snuck through to left field and the Golden Eagles walked-off toward their ultimate goal of the state championship.
“The whole year our entire philosophy has been ‘so what’, as long as we got an out, we got a chance to win,” Nelson said.
Maple Mountain is set to make their third championship game appearance and second against crosstown rival Spanish Fork. The Dons found themselves down 1-0 in their best-of-three series last weekend before rallying off five straight wins while the Golden Eagles had their own magical run. Maple Mountain won the series 2-0 in the regular season back in March as both teams finished 9-5 in Region 8 play, but none of that matters now. Friday night will start with score being 0-0 as will Saturday’s in what should be an emotional series.
“We got T-shirts that say ‘control what you can control’ and that is what we got to do. We can’t let the emotion or any of those external variables make an impact. They want to beat us and we want to beat them. We just got to play our game and eliminate those other variables,” Miner said.
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