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Spanish Fork's Nixon Warren takes a swing against West Field in a 5A baseball state playoff game at UCCU Ballpark on Thursday, May 21, 2026.

Conner Becker, Ogden Standard-Examiner

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Spanish Fork players celebrate an out against West Field in a 5A baseball state playoff game at UCCU Ballpark on Thursday, May 21, 2026.

Conner Becker, Ogden Standard-Examiner

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If you are a prep baseball fan, especially from Utah County, you couldn’t have asked for much more than what happened Thursday night at UCCU Ballpark.

Both No. 1 seed Spanish Fork and No. 2 seed Maple Mountain made it through the 5A one-loss bracket, beating West Field 10-9 and Pleasant Grove 6-5, respectively.

One game ended with a walk-off round tripper while the other ended with a double play. Now these two arch rivals, who split their two meetings in Region 7 action, will now finish up their best-of-three championship series starting Friday.

No. 1 Spanish Fork, No. 4 10 West Field 9

Spanish Fork city will gear up for one of its schools to bring home the gold trophy. So while Maple Mountain is the Dons’ biggest rival, a rivalry of sorts was created with West Field from Weber County. The three games the two teams played in the top side of the bracket were simply epic affairs. And the final game was just as dramatic as Spanish Fork coughed up a 9-1 lead only to win it in the bottom of the seventh when Pratt Morley launched a ball over the right field fence to deliver victory for the Dons.

“I was looking for the heater,” Morley said. He also related that the start of the state tournament was a bit of a struggle for him personally. “I started off the tournament not how I wanted,” added Morley. “But I had confidence in myself and didn’t care about the past and knew I was the man.”

In a game that ends up 10-9, there are plenty of key moments. With the score tied at 9-9, West Field had runners on first and second with two outs in the top of the seventh. This is when Don shortstop Cohen Nelson dove to knock down a batted ball. The West Field hitter got a hit but if that ball goes deeper into the outfield, the Longhorns would have gone ahead. Then Cody McLean, with bases full of Longhorns, got the pop up, which also ended in Nelson’s glove to retire the side.

These are the moments that Spanish Fork head coach Hadley Thorpe expects out of his players.

“It was just a game-saving play,” Thorpe said of Nelson’s efforts. But Thorpe also was quick to mention how other players stepped up, sometimes in roles they weren’t accustomed to.

“We had guys in positions they don’t normally play. Cody McLean hasn’t pitched really all year long but he comes in and gets three huge outs for us. I couldn’t ask for anything more out of our guys. But we’re going to ask them for two more wins.”

As far as the West Field vs. Spanish Fork match-up, there were definitely some contrasting styles. Spanish Fork has allowed the least runs of any team in the state with 100 or just 3.12 runs per game. Meanwhile, West Field scores 10.74 runs per contest, the highest runs per game average of any team in the Beehive State.

This fact wasn’t lost on Thorpe.

“This was an insane three-game stretch,” he said. “I mean, back and forth the whole way, nothing but props for those guys. They competed and wouldn’t go away. We got two big leads on them a couple of times but they wouldn’t go away. They would just grind out at-bats and were just a super tough team.”

West Field was a bit of an unknown as a second-year school and Spanish Fork denied the Longhorn baseball program from bringing back the first ever state trophy for the school.

Spanish Fork got huge efforts from a number of players both offensively and on the pitching front.

Sophomore Tilden Scott pitched the first four innings giving up just one run before being chased in the fifth when the Longhorn bats came alive.

“I can’t say enough about what Tilden Scott did in his first start since our first St. George weekend,” Thorpe said. “He comes in and gives us more than we ever could have asked for. Holding that line-up for four or five innings or whatever it was, you can’t ask for more out of a young kid and he did everything we asked of him.”

On the offensive front, Matai Johnson went 2-for-4 with two RBIs. McLean was also 2-for-4 with two runs scored and one RBI and his Don teammate Jason Pintar was 2-for-4 with a triple, plating one while scoring two. Meanwhile, Nixon Warren had two RBI’s.

Besides leaving the yard, Morley had a double as did Nelson, all leading to 10 runs on 12 hits.

No. 2 Maple Mountain 6, No. 3 Pleasant Grove 5

Maple Mountain head baseball coach Jeremy Thomas best describes his team as a bunch of grinders who show a lot of grit. The Golden Eagles have faced three elimination games, including one in the Super Regional, and have prevailed all three times. And with their backs to the wall, No. 2 seed Maple Mountain delivered again.

“We tell them all year long when they’re in the weight room at 5 a.m. that there’s not much that is harder than what they have to do to get their feet out of bed and to the weight room,” Thomas said. “There isn’t a pitcher they can’t hit or a hitter they can’t get out. So they’re gritty and really mentally tough so hopefully that continues and that they can grind out a couple of more.”

Perhaps nobody embraced the grind and showed his mettle better than Golden Eagle pitcher Kavyn Carter, who went the distance to pick up the victory.

“Kavyn Carter has been solid for us all year,” said Thomas. “He’s thrown strikes and he’s able to mix up his pitches and he’s been consistent. He’s given us a chance in every outing and we knew all we needed was a few runs for him and he would give us the opportunity.”

Carter faced a daunting task squaring off against BYU commit Ryder Huntsman. And though he felt he didn’t have his best stuff, his defense stepped up to make three double plays to end any Viking threats.

“Having a defense like that playing behind me it just gives me confidence to throw strikes and get ground balls and pop flies,” Carter said. “My fastball, curveball (were working). The change-up was there but I couldn’t locate it high enough. I was getting it too far down and they wouldn’t chase but it’s okay, we got through with it.”

To win and advance against a great hitting club like Pleasant Grove, Maple Mountain still needed to score some runs and they got five of their six in the bottom of the second inning.

Brooks Pratt and Lincoln Beenfield led off the inning with singles while Hayden Hyatt drew a walk to load the bases. Freshman Kye Ward delivered a triple that cleared the bases and gave Maple Mountain a 3-1 lead. Ward then scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-1.

The Golden Eagles weren’t done quite yet. Nash Ferguson doubled, and after Huntsman recorded a strikeout, Jeremiah Hall doubled to bring in Ferguson.

Pleasant Grove showed why they were the Region 7 champs as they clawed all the way back to actually tie the game after four innings.

Vake Wolfgramm had a solo home run in the third and then added an RBI double in the fourth while Davey Stafferi’s sacrifice fly knotted the score at 5-5 and moved Wolfgramm to third. But Carter got out of the jam as he induced a ground ball back to the mound.

Maple Mountain responded in the bottom of the frame, scoring a single run to move ahead 6-5. With one out, Hall scorched a double through the left-field gap then scored when Mick Winward singled.

It was then up to Carter and the Golden Eagle defense behind him to finish things off.

Pleasant Grove’s best threat came in the fifth inning when the Vikings got two runners on base. But Hall, Beenfield and Winward combined on a 6-4-3 double play to end the threat.

And then when Pleasant Grove got a runner aboard in the top of the seventh with one out, Hall ended the game by taking a grounder and touching second and then firing across to Beenfield. It was the third double play the Golden Eagles turned in the contest.