State Baseball: Chrisman blast moves Maple Mountain into 5A finals; No. 1 AF eliminated from 6A
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- The Maple Mountain baseball team erupts from the dugout after winning a 5A state tournament game against Salem Hills at UCCU Ballpark on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
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- Maple Mountain’s Cy Chrisman is welcomed home by his teammates after hitting a two-run homer against Salem Hills in a 5A baseball state tournament game at UCCU Ballpark on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
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- Corbin Gull of Salem Hills slides into third base during a 5A baseball state tournament game against Maple Mountain at UCCU Ballpark on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
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- Springville senior Junior Lauaki takes a photo with a family member before the start of a 6A baseball state tournament game against Orem at UCCU Ballpark on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
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- Corbin Gull of Salem Hills slides in safely to home plate during a 5A baseball state tournament game against Maple Mountain at UCCU Ballpark on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
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- Trig Richards of Salem Hills delivers a pitch against Maple Mountain in a 5A baseball state tournament game at UCCU Ballpark on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
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- Maple Mountain’s Cy Chrisman takes a swing against Salem Hills in a 5A baseball state tournament game at UCCU Ballpark on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
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- Corbin Gull of Salem Hills celebrates hitting a double against Maple Mountain in a 5A baseball state tournament game at UCCU Ballpark on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
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- Maple Mountain’s Jake Roscher delivers a pitch against Salem Hills during a 5A baseball state tournament game at UCCU Ballpark on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
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- Kaleb Holman of Salem Hills takes off for first base during a 5A baseball state tournament game against Maple Mountain at UCCU Ballpark on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
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- Springville’s Junior Lauaki fouls off a pitch during a 5A baseball state tournament game against Orem at UCCU Ballpark on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
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- Orem’s Cy Berge slides into third base ahead of the throw during a 5A baseball state tournament game against Springville at UCCU Ballpark on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
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- Orem’s Easton Petitta dives back to first base against Springville in a 5A baseball state tournament game at UCCU Ballpark on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
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- Six Springville baseball players await a graduation ceremony before the start of a 5A state tournament game against Orem at UCCU Ballpark on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
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- Salem Hills coach Scott Haney talks to an umpire during a 5A baseball state tournament game against Maple Mountain at UCCU Ballpark on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
Having played Maple Mountain three previous times, Salem Hills knows how dangerous it is to pitch to sophomore Cy Chrisman.
Chrisman made the Skyhawks pay in a big way in Wednesday’s 5A state tournament game at UCCU Ballpark, bashing a towering two-run homer to left field in the sixth inning for the go-ahead runs in a 6-5 comeback victory for the Golden Eagles.
“Cy has size and presence but he’s a very plate-disciplined hitter, so he doesn’t swing at many pitches off the plate,” Maple Mountain coach Jeremy Thomas said. “When he gets two strikes on him, he takes a good two-strike approach. Then he just tries to put the ball in play. His size and strength allows that ball to carry.”
No. 2 seed Maple Mountain trailed 5-2 entering the bottom of the sixth. A.J. Thomas came through with a clutch two-run single to trim the deficit to 5-4. With one out and one on, Chrisman stepped to the plate.
In the fourth, with two outs and two runners on, Salem Hills opted to intentionally walk Chrisman and the next batter grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.
This time, the Skyhawks elected to let reliever Corbin Gull pitch to him.
“JT (Thomas) came up and kind of calmed me down because when you have a situation like that your heart kind of starts running,” Chrisman said. “So he told me to get that one pitch that I wanted. Sure enough they gave me that one pitch and that’s what happened.”
Chrisman ripped a fastball that stayed in the air for what seemed like forever before it dropped beyond the left field fence to give Maple Mountain a 6-5 lead.
“From the moment I hit it, I knew it was gone,” Chrisman said. “The energy from the crowd as that thing was going, I could feel it. Everyone was kind of holding their breath.”
Chrisman, who hit his ninth home run of the season, is the son of former Provo standout Jed Chrisman and nephew to former BYU baseball and basketball player Jake Chrisman.
Thomas said he can empathize with what opposing coaches are going through when Chrisman comes to the plate.
“I mean we did the same thing last year against Springville,” he said. “They have a big guy (Junior Lauaki) and we intentionally walked him 11 out of 12 times because we have so much respect for him. That’s a tough decision because you just don’t know what to do. We were just lucky enough that Cy got a pitch that he could hit today.”
Salem Hills got the tying run to second base against reliever Bennett Averett with two outs in the top of the seventh. Averett got Roper Kay to pop up to first base and Chase Johnston squeezed it to end the game.
The Skyhawks (20-11) put up two in the top of the first on an RBI single by Alex Cloward and a ground out from Kason Averett. Averett and Chase DeGraffenried each drove in a run in the third for a 4-0 lead. An error on a long fly ball by Chrisman pushed across the first run of the game for Maple Mountain in the third and Bennett Averett hit a solo shot in the fourth to cut the lead to 4-2. Ledger Holmes tripled and came home on a sacrifice fly by Gull to give Salem Hills the 5-2 lead it would take into the fateful sixth inning.
“Our approach always is to fight and try to get that starting pitcher out of the lineup and then once we do that, our second goal is to double our run production,” Thomas said. “We’ve done it all year. We’ve been a comeback team. Today we did the same thing so it’s nothing new to us.”
Maple Mountain (26-4) moves on to the best-of-three championship series, which begins with Game 1 on Friday. The Golden Eagles will play the winner of No. 1 seed Brighton and No. 4 seed Springville. If the Red Devils win in Wednesday’s late game, the two teams would play again Thursday in an elimination contest.
6A Tournament results
No. 4 Riverton 6, No. 1 American Fork 2
The defending state champions and No. 1 seed Cavemen were eliminated with a 6-2 loss to No. 4 Riverton.
Cooper Jones was 3 for 4 at the plate for American Fork (21-8) and Crew Ingersoll was 2 of 2 but the Cavemen didn’t have any extra-base hits and stranded 11 runners against three Riverton pitchers, which allowed nine hits and struck out five.
American Fork had won three state titles in three of the past four seasons (2020, 2021, 2023).
The Silverwolves (22-8) moved on to the late game against No. 5 Lehi (20-9) needing a win to extend their season to Thursday for an elimination contest with the Pioneers.
No. 5 Lehi 5, No. 4 Riverton 2
The Pioneers advanced to the 6A best-of-three championship series by eliminating Riverton in the late game at BYU’s Miller Park.
Kowen Walker was terrific on the mound, scattering six hits and holding the Silverwolves to just one earned run through five innings. Riverton broke a 1-1 tie with a single run in the bottom of the sixth, but Lehi pushed across four runs in the top of the seventh. Mays Madsen helped close out the game in relief with a scoreless bottom of the inning.
The Pioneers (21-9) will face the winner of Thursday’s elimination game between No. 10 Corner Canyon and No. 3 Mountain Ridge.
5A Tournament results
No. 4 Springville 9, No. 5 Orem 7
Springville (22-7) saw a seven-run lead disappear into a 7-7 tie heading to the bottom of the sixth but manufactured a pair of runs and held off Orem 9-7 in a 5A elimination game.
After Lauaki reached on his third hit of the game for the Red Devils, Orem sophomore Cole Engemann walked two and hit a batter to force in the go-ahead run. Kaden Tingey drove in another run with a fielder’s choice to give Springville a 9-7 lead.
In the top of the seventh, sophomore Hugh Redd sent Orem down in order to pick up the win in relief.
Ashtyn Tate hit a sacrifice fly, Braxton Hughes drove in two with a single, Mason DeLlamas had an RBI single and Easton Van Sickle plated two with a double as the Red Devils took a 6-0 lead in the top of the first.
Orem battled back and scored three in the third, one in the fifth and three more in the sixth. An RBI single from Merrick Bostock tied the game at 7.
Bostock finished the day 4 for 4 and Cy Berge was 3 for 4 with a triple for the Tigers (22-9).
No. 6 Salem Hills 15, No. 14 Box Elder 3
Kay and Kaleb Holman demolished Box Elder pitching as the Skyhawks stayed alive with an overwhelming victory Wednesday in an elimination game.
Kay drove in five runs on a 3-for-3 day that included a three-run homer and Holman plated four runs, going 2 for 3 at the plate. Salem Hills pounded out 15 hits in a game ended after five innings via the ten-run rule.
Dagen Gammell and Gull combined to hold the Bees to five hits.
No. 1 Brighton 4, No. 4 Springville 2
The Red Devils suffered a heartbreaking loss in the 5A late game.
Leading 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh, Springville was one out away from forcing an elimination game on Thursday for a shot at the 5A championship series. But Brighton’s Jack Saba hit a walk-off three-run homer to send the Bengals there instead.
Springville ended the season with a record of 22-8.
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