DICKSON: No team has ever done what Spanish Fork baseball just did
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- Spanish Fork players pose for a photo with the state title trophy after winning the 5A championship series against Brighton at UCCU Ballpark in Orem on Saturday, May 24, 2025.
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- American Fork players celebrate after winning the 6A championship game against Bingham at America First Field in Sandy on Thursday, May 22, 2025.
After a 12-8 extra-inning victory against Orem on May 1 raised Spanish Fork’s record to 8-14, Dons coach Hadley Thorpe said, “I feel like we’re headed in the right direction.”
Turns out that wasn’t just coach-speak.
Coaches have a vision in their head of what their team could be, and often reality doesn’t match that belief. Yet there was Thorpe, standing on the field at UCCU Ballpark on Saturday evening, celebrating an improbable 5A state baseball championship.
In fact, an argument can be made that Spanish Fork’s title is the most improbable in the history of high school sports in Utah. George Felt, the state’s top high school sports historian, could correct me on that if he wants.
I know in my lifetime, I’ve never seen anything like it. A No. 20 seed winning a 24-team tournament is kind of absurd.
Taking the 2024-25 school year as an example, there were 56 team titles awarded where RPI seeding was used. In 53 of those tournaments (95%) a top five seed won the championship. The only three that didn’t fit that mold were No. 7 Lone Peak in 6A girls basketball, No. 8 Crimson Cliffs in 4A baseball and No. 20 Spanish Fork in 5A baseball. In 66% of tournaments (37 of 56), a No. 1 or No. 2 seed won the gold trophy.
That’s how RPI works. The top teams get the advantage of home playoff games and face off against lower seeds throughout the tournament, based on their play in the regular season.
Let’s take things another step.
The UHSAA started using RPI to seed teams in its tournaments in 2019. At No. 20, Spanish Fork is the lowest seed to ever win a team championship. Before Saturday, that title belonged to 2019 Orem football (No. 12) and 2023 Syracuse girls soccer (No. 12). On a side note, the 2019 Lone Peak football team ended up a No. 20 seed in the 6A tournament due to forfeited games and made it as far as the semifinals.
Before the RPI era (at least since the late 1980s), each region sent its top four teams to the state tournament. Spanish Fork finished 6-8 in Region 7 this season, in sixth place. A team such as the Dons wouldn’t even have made the tournament field pre-2019.
That’s why this could be the greatest upset in the history of Utah high school sports championships.
Spanish Fork lost its first five games of 2025, including a 13-0 loss to Snow Canyon, and stood at 2-11 after 13 games. The Dons entered the 5A Tournament with a 9-16 record and won at No. 13 Clearfield in the Regional round, drubbing the Falcons 9-0 and 7-1 to win the best-of-three series. In the Super Regional round, Spanish Fork routed No. 4 Alta 11-1 and 7-4 to earn a spot in bracket play.
There, the Dons really shined, opening with a 7-3 victory against No. 5 Cyprus. Spanish Fork beat top seed Maple Mountain 5-2 and 6-5 to advance to the best-of-three championship series. Note that during Region 7 play, the Golden Eagles shut out the Dons twice (6-0 and 4-0).
Spanish Fork lost Game 1 to No. 2 Brighton 6-3 on Friday but came back to beat the Bengals 7-3 (in eight innings) and 7-4 to win the 5A championship.
In all, the Dons won 10 of their final 11 games to finish one game over .500 (18-17).
It was truly stunning work by Thorpe, his assistant coaches and his players.
Brandon Gurney wrote a terrific story for the Daily Herald about how Spanish Fork managed to pull off this historic victory, so give it a read.
The Spanish Fork area has grown tremendously over the past decade, especially down Highway 6 on the northeast side of town. But it wasn’t too big to give the team a traditional ride on fire trucks through the streets on Saturday night.
That might be the best part of the whole experience, that the community got a chance to celebrate the program’s ninth and most improbable state title.
All red, all the time
American Fork has been overshadowed at times by its sister school in north county, Lone Peak.
Not this spring.
The Cavemen cleaned up this month, winning five state championships. The gold trophies included wins in boys tennis, boys soccer, boys and girls track and baseball.
American Fork added one more title during the 2024-25 school year in boys swimming.
Great work
A big shoutout to Gurney, Jared Lloyd and Brian Preece for their excellent coverage for the Daily Herald during the spring state tournaments. With the addition of boys and girls lacrosse and boys volleyball in the past five years, covering Utah Valley teams during spring is a beast. On one particular Thursday, there were more than 40 playoff games involving area teams. There are dozens of terrific stories and tons of superb photos on our website (heraldextra.com).
In addition to American Fork’s five state titles, local championships were won by Maple Mountain (5A boys volleyball), Orem (4A boys volleyball and boys track), Spanish Fork (5A baseball), Lone Peak (girls golf), Timpview (5A girls track) and Maeser Prep (2A boys soccer).
To be honest, some of my favorite stories I’ve ever written were during high school state tournaments. The drama and emotion are pretty much unmatched. It’s kind of a writer’s World Series, so to speak, and Brandon, Jared and Brian hit it out of the park.
See you next season.
