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Lehi and Maple Mountain players shake hands after the non-region game at Miller Park in Provo on Tuesday, March 11, 2025.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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Lehi senior Koy Trane swings at a pitch from Maple Mountain senior Chase Johnston during the non-region game at Miller Park in Provo on Tuesday, March 11, 2025.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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Lehi head baseball coach Eric Madsen coached for 13 years at UVU. Maple Mountain head baseball coach Jeremy Thomas played at BYU and later coached for the Cougars for six years.

Both of those coaches got accustomed to the amenities that come with playing at great college baseball venues like Miller Park in Provo or UCCU Ballpark in Orem.

But for many of the Golden Eagle and Pioneer players, getting to play in stadiums like Miller Park like they did on Tuesday is something pretty special.

“This is great for the kids,” Madsen said. ” It’s like, ‘hey, this is cool. We get to be out here.’ It’s a beautiful ballpark, so to have them experience it is awesome. A lot of high school kids will never get a chance to put their feet on a college field in a game. In the spring, you’ve got to make the playoffs or get this type of opportunity.”

Madsen credited Thomas for using his BYU connections to make the opportunity possible for both teams.

“We’re really thankful (to BYU) for letting us play here,” Madsen said.

Thomas smiled as he talked about the chance to coach at Miller Park again.

“I love this venue,” Thomas said. “I coached here for six years with Coach (Trent) Pratt and Coach (Mike) Littlewood and those guys, and so it’s like coming home to me. I wanted the kids to have that experience as well.”

He explained that after both Lehi (6A) and Maple Mountain (5A) won their respective state championships, he saw an opportunity for a fun contest this March.

“I reached out to BYU to see if we could bring both state champions back in and play this game,” Thomas said. “It was a lot of fun. The atmosphere is great, and the kids really enjoy it. I’m glad that they get an experience here because most of them won’t have that experience after this. It’s really good that they get to come in and see this.”

He said he enjoyed getting the chance to share his personal experience with the players.

“There is a special feeling here on campus,” Thomas said. “It’s great to be able to coach my two sons here and then all of these high school kids to be able to experience a little bit of what I had the opportunity to do for so many years.”

The game itself was a delicious early-season matchup of the defending 5A and 6A baseball champions at Miller Park in Provo on Tuesday, one that resulted in one team ending up pleased and the other a little disappointed.

Maple Mountain — who defeated Brighton to win the 5A title last May — took advantage of some opportunities and got great pitching and defense to cruise to the 11-2 victory over Lehi (who knocked off Corner Canyon to take the 6A crown in 2024).

The Golden Eagles got a big home-run blast from junior Cy Chrisman in the third inning to give Maple Mountain the lead, but the Pioneers kept things close with a couple of early runs of their own.

“Our guys were really patient at the plate,” Thomas said. “They took a couple of walks and then we just took advantage of a few miscues and a couple of wild pitches and pass balls. We were able to score earlier in the game and we had some timely hitting. We had a big home run that got us going.”

It was a 4-2 lead for the Golden Eagles going into the bottom of the fourth, but that was when Maple Mountain got rolling. It took advantage of some free bases to put up five runs and never looked back.

Golden Eagle starting pitcher Chase Johnston went five innings and gave up just two runs, while senior reliever Sawyer Leifson closed things out by holding Lehi scoreless in the sixth and seventh innings.

“Our pitching was solid,” Thomas said. “We kept them off balance, kept them off the base paths, because Lehi is really good on the base paths. They can really run and are a super-athletic team. We were able to minimize the free bases and then Sawyer came in to close it out in the last two innings. He was able to fill up the zone with strikes. All around I felt like we put together a full game.”

Madsen said he hopes his team learns some things from having things not go their way on Tuesday.

“We’re a talented team, and we showed it last week,” Madsen said. “These guys are competitive and they get after it, but I think we’ve got to find that competitiveness a little bit more. When we got down, I thought there were certain guys who decided to get after it and I thought some other guys were just like all right, we’ll just play it out. We need to have a little more competitiveness as the year goes on.”

Maple Mountain (5-0) is scheduled to start a St. George tournament against Olympus on Friday at 1 p.m., while the Pioneers (3-2) play at Juan Diego on Wednesday before getting a week off.