Kelsch's 2 dingers doom Cavemen
But Lone Peak slugger Adam Kelsch wasn't satisfied with doing it just once Tuesday in the Knights 12-5 come-from-behind win over the American Fork Cavemen. He delivered a crippling blow to the Cavemen twice, with two home runs and six RBIs. He also had a single and scored three times.
"This is by far the biggest game of my life," a jubilant Kelsch said after the key Region 4 win.
First, Kelsch pulled a high fastball over the right-field fence for a grand slam in the third to tie the game 4-4. Then, two innings later, he delivered a two-run blast to a similar spot behind the right-field fence to put Lone Peak up for good.
"That was big-time for us," Lone Peak coach Mike LaHargoue said. "He's the one who got us back in the game."
The most impressive part of Kelsch's homers was that both came with two strikes and after he had fouled off several two-strike pitches to stay alive. The grand slam came with two outs and on a full count. Both homers were off high fastballs.
"The pitches were just there and I just sent them on their way," Kelsch said.
Up until Kelsch's first dramatic swat, American Fork was actually dominating the game. The Cavemen pounded Lone Peak starter Daniel Sechrest for three runs in the first on a solo homer by Bo Fisher and a two-run shot by Josh Mooney — both blasts were line shots over the left-center fence.
From that point on, Sechrest — who was almost pulled in the first — settled down and allowed only five singles the rest of the way, and four of those were infield hits.
"He just kind of got in his groove and started getting his off-speed stuff over and started getting them a little off-balanced," LaHargoue said.
The story on Mooney, American Fork's starter, was almost reverse.
The junior righty breezed through the first two innings without allowing a base runner. He gave up a lead-off hit in the third and then invited big trouble with a two-out walk and hit batter to load the bases. Kelsch made him pay, and suddenly the Knights were back in business.
Still, American Fork went back ahead 5-4 in the fifth when a run scored on an infield hit and an ensuing error. But in their half, the Knights put two runners on when Brayden Matheson doubled and the Cavemen committed an error. Matheson scored on a wild pitch to tie the game, and then Kelsch delivered his second dinger to to put Lone Peak up 7-5.
The roof caved in on the Cavemen in the sixth as Lone Peak added five more runs on only three singles, but the Knights were aided by five American Fork errors in the inning.
Lone Peak remains tied with Timpanogos for second with a 4-1 mark. The Cavemen drop to 2-3 but remain alone in fourth. The two teams meet again on Thursday.
E-mail: jimr@desnews.com
Recent comments
Hard to lose isn't it. LP must have played pretty well if the...
Hard to lose | April 24, 2008 at 9:40 a.m.
"lone peak is a joke, it's like they've never won a...
Anonymous | April 23, 2008 at 3:22 p.m.
is a joke, it's like they've never won a game before. act...
lone peak | April 23, 2008 at 1:06 p.m.
