High school baseball: Spanish Fork exacts revenge, turns tables on Timpanogos

By Devon Black
For the Deseret News
Published: Friday, May 9, 2008 12:20 a.m. MDT
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OREM — Three days after getting knocked out of its own ballpark, the Spanish Fork baseball team returned the favor and clinched second place in Region 4 with a 12-5 win over Timpanogos on Thursday.

After their shutout loss to the T-Wolves on Monday, the Dons came out looking for payback and wasted no time finding it. Spanish Fork jumped out to an early nine-run lead and then matched Timpanogos hit-for-hit in the comfortable victory.

"They blew us out and we kind of blew them out," said Spanish Fork coach Jim Nelson. "It's kind of a tale of two cities right there. Both games mimicked one another."

While an early offensive explosion put Timpanogos in an early hole, Dons pitcher Brock Duke had an efficient day on the mound. The junior pitched all seven innings, striking out six and limiting the T-Wolves to offense enough to stop any rallies from developing.

Duke faced a few trouble spots, but managed to pull out without allowing many runs.

"He had base runners a lot of innings and had to pitch out of trouble," said Nelson. "He found a way to make the big pitches and make the big outs when he needed them."

At the plate, Gentry Mitchell had a big first inning home run that set the tone early. Spanish Fork got nine of its 13 hits in its first two at bats.

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"We were able to get to their pitching," said Nelson. "I thought we executed offensively as well as we have all year. We got our bunts down. When guys were on third we hit a fly ball to the outfield."

The game opened with consecutive singles by Damon Ward, Kirt Daley and Tyler Hanks, the latter scoring the first run. With two runners on, Mitchell's home run made the score 4-0.

In the second inning, Ward hit an RBI single, and was then walked home three batters later for the sixth run. Three more runs came in on a Mitchell sacrifice fly, a Cade Christensen double, and another sacrifice by Michael Hayes.

Taylor Lyons' two-RBI double put Timpanogos on the board in the bottom of the inning, but the T-Wolves would get no closer.

The teams traded runs for the next three innings and the Dons came up with defensive plays whenever Timpangos threatened to come back.

"It's impossible to blow out Timpanogos as potent as their offense is," said Nelson. "Once we got to 9-0 we just thought if we could answer with a run or two everytime they did that we'd be OK."

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