The American Fork baseball team overcame its own mistakes and gradually pushed runs across to beat Pleasant Grove 6-1 at home Wednesday on a bitterly cold, windy afternoon.

Some uncharacteristic mistakes in the opening inning of the contest gave the visiting Vikings a great opportunity and they did manage to get one run in for the quick early lead.

However, the Cavemen responded in the bottom half with a pair of scores.

Senior second baseman Zach Haws cracked a leadoff single and senior third baseman Brock Lamb followed him aboard after being hit by a pitch.

Senior shortstop Riley Ottesen grounded into a fielder’s choice at third, but the throw attempting a double play went wide at first and moved the runners to second and third.

Senior catcher Zac Willis loaded the bases, and senior first baseman Sean Hardman’s fielder’s choice grounder scored two to take over the lead. It turned out to be all American Fork would need, but there were many more anxious moments before the result was decided.

The scoreless second inning came about in part because of a couple of impressive plays starting at third base.

Lamb made a great grab close to the baseline to start a double play for the Cavemen, while in the bottom half, Pleasant Grove third baseman McKay Lewis laid out to field a grounder and got the runner at first.

The third yielded no runs either, with the aid of a Viking 6-4-3 double play from junior shortstop Jade Smoot to senior second baseman Bryce Jones and then to junior first baseman Brody Blackhurst.

After that, however, it came down to capitalizing on opportunities. American Fork nickled-and-dimed Pleasant Grove through the next three innings, getting a run each in the fourth and fifth and two in the sixth.

On the other side, the Vikings stranded runners in the fourth, sixth and seventh and made a number of defensive mistakes which also didn’t help their cause.

“Playing in those kinds of conditions, we want to limit strikeouts and put the ball in play,” said Caveman coach Jarod Ingersoll. “We were able to do that, though Pleasant Grove did a good job of keeping us off balance. We were fortunate to put up some runs to create a little bit of space.”

American Fork had 12 hits in the game. Lamb went 2-for-3 with an RBI, Emmett Green was 2-for-2 and Willis also was 2-for-3. Ottesen doubled and Hardman smacked a right-field triple for the home team.

The Vikings (9-5, 1-4) and the Cavemen (10-2, 5-0) are scheduled to complete their three-game series at Pleasant Grove on Friday at 4 p.m.

Beky Beaton can be reached at bbeaton@heraldextra.com. Follow her on Twitter at @BeatonWrite.

American Fork 6, Pleasant Grove 1

Pleasant Grove 100 000 0 — 1 4 2

American Fork 200 112 x — 6 12 3

Coombs and Henry. Pitcher, Brailsford (7) and Willis. WP-Pitcher. LP-Coombs. 2B-Ottesen (AF); 3B-Hardman (AF).