PG, Nordick overpower Spanish Fork for second straight win
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- Pleasant Grove’s Keaton Nordick throws a pitch against Spanish Fork in a Region 7 baseball game on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Connor Ybara slides safely into home plate in a Region 7 baseball game against Spanish Fork on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.
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- Spanish Fork’s Sammy Dart throws a pitch against Pleasant Grove in a Region 7 baseball game on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.
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- Pleasant Grove catcher Vake Wolfgramm, center, scoops up a ball at home plate against Spanish Fork in a Region 7 baseball game on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.
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- Spanish Fork’s Boston Duvall, left, dives back to first base as Pleasant Grove’s Damon Banks awaits the throw in a Region 7 baseball game on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Keaton Nordick throws a pitch against Spanish Fork in a Region 7 baseball game on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.
In the sixth inning on Tuesday, Pleasant Grove pitcher Keaton Nordick had to race off the mound to field a bleeder hit near the third base line by Spanish Fork’s Matai Johnson.
With Johnson racing toward first base, Nordick fielded the ball and made a terrific throw for the third out of the inning.
“I came up with it and I was like, ‘Let’s just try it out,'” Nordick said.
Everything was going Nordick’s way against the Dons, highlighted by a career-high 15 strikeouts in a 6-2 victory.
In six innings of work, Nordick struck out the side three times and allowed just one hit. Combined with Mason Henry’s 12 strikeouts in a 7-1 win on Monday, the pair totaled 27 strikeouts against a Spanish Fork team that had started the season 13-0 and outscored its opponents 104-24.
“We’ve got a strong pitching staff, and we do lean on them,” Pleasant Grove coach Darrin Henry said. “I think the key was giving them some runs early so they can just be themselves.”
Nordick, who has committed to BYU, also went 2 of 4 at the plate and drove in a pair of runs.
Last year, he posted a 9-2 record with a 2.16 ERA and 90 strikeouts but started a little slower this season, giving up eight runs in non-region losses to Lehi and American Fork.
On Tuesday, he was a dominant force.
What’s the power of a strikeout?
“It just feels like I need to focus on the next guy,” Nordick said. “This one’s down, I’ve got to get the next guy. It’s always the next pitch, the next guy.”
Coach Henry said, “Keaton a workaholic, is the first part. He’s just continually trying to get better everywhere he can. He’s always in the weight room. He’s always doing the extra running, whatever he needs to do. He’s got dreams to go to the next level and be really good here.”
The Vikings jumped on Spanish Fork starter Sammy Dart early. Nordick stroked an RBI single and Tobin Degelbeck plated another run with a sacrifice fly in the top of the first. In the second inning, Damon Banks doubled and came home in a single by Davey Staffieri for a 3-0 advantage.
Pleasant Grove added three more runs in the fourth, getting RBI singles from Vake Wolgramm, Nordick and Degelbeck to take a commanding 6-0 lead.
The closest Spanish Fork came to scoring against Nordick came in the fouth inning when an error, a passed ball and a single by Jason Pintar put runners at second and third with one out. No matter: Nordick struck out Cody McLean and Boston Duvall to end the threat.
The Dons managed to scrape across two runs in the bottom of the seventh against Degelbeck on an RBI single by Duvall and a groundout by Nixon Warren. But Degebeck induced a groundout by Dart to end the game.
Pleasant Grove (8-6 overall, 2-1 Region 7) suffered through a five-game losing streak while playing in tournaments in St. George but seemed to have righted the ship.
“We were able to reset our pitching,” Coach Henry said. “We had so many games in small amount of time, but we like that. We have to go compete and we played a bunch of good teams. We were going to win some and lose some. We understand that. We just have to keep on getting better. We had to hit the reset button a little be and see how hard we can work and to see what we see if we accomplish some goals.”
The Vikings have a matchup at Wasatch on Thursday while Spanish Fork (13-2, 2-2) is off until next Tuesday, when they will travel to Heber to play the Wasps.
