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Show AMERICAN FORK CITIZEN Thursday, March 30, 2006 BBS? Page 6 pre,: tl;-JlM teiPr! COMMUNITY SPORTS. PEOPLE AND Daniond preview Thee teams vie for top spot in Region 4 softball face Neil K. Warner n paper it's text close to call This could foe a literal photofinish. Spanish Fork, Lone Peak and Timpanogos are so close it may take arthroscopic surgery to separate the three teams. But if there is one team with a trump card, one team with a player who could just be the difference, dif-ference, it is Timpanogos with senior pitcher A 111 Bramwell. Last season, Bramwell went HA with a 1.73 L.RA and set a new state recoid for strikeouts with 107. This year Bramwell has already put up 1 angering num-lers. num-lers. She's 2-1 on the year; in 17 innings, she's gh en up just eight hits and only five walks; and, site's fanned 37 batters, an average of 17.3 strikeouts per seven innings pitched. If Bramwell continues to shine, she just may be the person per-son to put Timpanogos over the top. 1 lere's a closer look at how the Region 4 softball race is shaping up: Timpanogos You are about to see what coach Frank Bramall believes See SOFTBALL, Page 7 0 Meyers leads American Fork soccer rewind Jared Lloyd j''!H i. . IN ' f American fork senior forward for-ward Mike Meyers srx;nt the entire soccer game against Lehi Tuesday afternoon trying to talk the ball into stopping lieing so erratic. "It was really frustrating." he said. "I just wanted it to stop sooner or slow down in front of their (Lehi's) keejjer. I wanted it to come to ne instead of making mak-ing me run so far." The agile si mor sjient much of the game c lasing after that one elusive o ortunity to get the ball in a g hkI position to score, but the clock hit the 80-minute 80-minute mark before it came. Fortunately for the Cavemen, the Pioneers couldn't score either, ei-ther, sending the game to overtime over-time as a 0-0 tie. Seven minutes into the extra frame, Meyers got the chance he wanted and scored the game-winner, giving American Fork the 1-0 victory. "We had chances, especially in the first half," Caveman head coach Eric Hundley said. "We had several good chances that just missed. But you have to give our guys credit. They played hard and never gave up" Both teams used quick counterattacks tliroughout the contest, making the game an exciting sprint up and down the field. American Fork's goal came on just such an exchange, when Meyers took a pass from senior Craig Hundley about 30 yards out with a defender right on him. "He gave me a great through bull und I just juked the last defender, de-fender, tlien put it in on the fur post," Meyers explained The two squads used (lie high REGION America i Fork's Hap Holmstead Neil K. Warner Let 's just say you have a vote. You are on the board, you can cast your vote on the team to beat in Region 4. Who Is it going to be? Are you going to agree with the majority of the coaches and take Spanish Fork? The Dons finished with a 22-5 22-5 record last year. They were second in their region last year and fifth in the state. On paper, this team is better and could be one of the best Spanish Fork teams ever. 1 . - 4rt ttf if MARIO RUIZ 'North County American Fork's Jared VogelsLerg fights for the bull against a Lei i player on Tuesdain nericunFork. risk, hip dn'winj Af noup eiiit of. opened t1 1 J approach of use up quickly. , am forced lis, it also for breakaway opporturu vt times, all of the players cept the keepers were playing within a 20-yard area. Hundley noted hat Meyers had been very do to gettmg scoring opportunities throughout the game, breaking out past the defense, but finally got the goal because he kept playing hard. "It was a tough, hard-fought match, pretty even on both sides and with a lot of intensity," inten-sity," the coach added. Much of the credit for the low score has to go to each of the keepers. Pioneer Derek Doel and Cavemen Jay Baker and Kyle Eakins matched each other with great saves and risky charges to keep the game scoreless. "Jay Baker played the first half und had a great game." Hundley said. "Then Kyle Ea OUTDOOR FUN 4 BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL pitches in a game last season. Holmstead is one of the top returning preview You might want to write in pencil. You could take Lone Peak and look smart. The Knights finished second in the state last year and could also be a better team. Pleasant Grove finished third in the state last year, and while it will be tough to replace pitcher pitch-er Kyle Beecher, who is now pitching for UVSC, the Vikings believe they are better than last year's team. kins came in for the second half and was amazing. He had some great saves. The defenses played well, but they deserve the credit for the shutout." - The best save of the game came on a bouncing ball inside the American Fork goal box. Lehi appeared to be in perfect position to go in front in the 76th minute, shooting at an apparently ap-parently empty net, but Eakins lunged and deflected the shot wide to kept the Pioneers from getting on the board. While the preseason win means nothing as far as region standings go, the Cavemen hope it's a indicator of things to come. "This is our first win of the season," Meyers said. "Hopefully "Hope-fully this will mark a big turnaround turn-around for us. Hopefully we'll start winning games and taking it in region." Hundley believes that the victory vic-tory will give his squad a shot of confidence right when they need it. "It shows us that we can hang in when it's close if we keep playing hard," he said. "This team has a ton of potential, poten-tial, so it's a question of whether we gel together." American Fork looks to build a win streak when it hosts Bingham Bing-ham this afternoon. I March 23 Orem 4, American Fork 1: The Cavemen were overcome by the Tigers on the road. The conl ist unfolded with Caveman Trevor Gatenby guiding guid-ing his team deep into Orem territory. The Cavemen quickly encountered stubborn Tiger resistance re-sistance led by Shane Farley. American Fork almost had a good chance at makii.j the first goal when a corner kick flew into the Orem penalty box in the game's first five minutes. However, Orem cleared the ball out of the box. and a big Farley kick sent the Tigers onto the U GO I 7 : If you are looking for a sleeper pick, American Fork is your team. Coming off a 15-8 season, the Cavemen believe they are better too, and they return the core of last year's team that went four games into the state tournament. American Fork's offense is so explosive, the Cavemen started the season 10-running three of the first four teams they played and scored in 19 of their first 21 innings. And we haven't even talked about Timpanogos, which was picked to finish fifth in this region and opened the season with a win over top-ranked Jordan and scored 54 runs in offensive. Farley missed two straight shots, frustrating the Orem offense. of-fense. Thanks to a Shad Roundy kick, the Cavemen smothered the attack. Gatenby, Creggan Wagstaff and goalie Jay Baker checked several Tiger penetrations of the penalty box during the next 30 minutes. Midway through the first half, Wagstaff put the brakes on a Kyle Turner breakaway play just a few yards from the Caveman goal line. In the last 10 minutes of the half, the Cavemen's great defensive defen-sive effort received a blow that also yielded a price for Orem. Brady Wells connected a pass to Brad Howard for a goal. As the Cavemen struggled in vain to keep Howard's shot from going in, he took a nasty fall in the penalty box. With his leg injured, he had to be escorted by two coaches off the field. It was later learned that he had torn his ACL while scoring his goal. Orem's 1-5 lead last until the early second half. As soon as American Fork had snuffed a Tiger attack at the start of the period, Wagstaff and Mike Meyers stirred up an aggressive Caveman offensive. It quickly paid off. Meyers tied the game at one on a shot he kicked from inside the Orem penalty box. It was all Tigers after that, however. American Fork Coach Eric Hundley said, "We really played much better today than we did at Provo. Today was our best performance so far in the season. sea-son. We had tons of chances at scoring. We just didn't finish our shots." Dean Von Memmof f filed this report. Baseball I March 22 American Fork 10, Timpview 1: Though the Cavemen JEREMY HARMONNorth County pitchers for the Cavemen. its first four games. Is that crazy or what? The defending champs have two players (Austin Heaps and Cole McWhorter) who have already signed at UVSC. "I had a coach from one of the Salt Lake regions tell me he's sure glad he's not in our region. This is the ACC of high school baseball," said Spanish Span-ish Fork coach Jim Nelson. "There's a (very) good team that's not going to make the tournament in our region." Who's that going to be? You have a vote. That's half the fun. Here's a closer look at each See BASEBALL, Page 7 to win in scored 10 runs, their pitching staff didn't really need the help. Even after allowing Timpview to score first, American Ameri-can Fork managed to run away with a big victory over the T'Birds. "It was nice to finally get out of the gym and play outside," said American Fork coach Jarod Ingersoll. "Our pitching threw strong and the hitting really re-ally picked it up near the end of the game." American Fork's pitching was led by the duo of Hap Holmstead and Aaron Baddley. Holmstead allowed one run and three hits in three innings of work, while Baddley closed out the game, allowing two hits and striking out seven batters in four innings. "Aaron has great oftepeed stuff, and when he hits his spots, he's a great pitcher for us," said Ingersoll. Timpview got off to a solid start as an RBI double from Josh Barber gave his team a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning, but it was the last time that the T'Birds would hold the lead. Singles by Colby Zimmerman and Gentry Bean set the stage for an opposite-field RBI double by Josh Jones to give American Fork a 2-1 lead. TJ. Spencer followed with an RBI single to push the Caveman advantage to 3-1 heading into the third inning. in-ning. Timpview pitcher Austin Bingham Bing-ham kept American Fork scoreless score-less until the bottom of the fifth inning, when he was relieved. The Cavemen then scored four runs on the strength of an RBI double by Holmstead, an RBI single from Cory Draper and a Timpview fielding error that allowed two runs to score, making it 7-1. American Fork's offense caught fire again in the bottom of the sixth inning as a Steve Parker RBI single was followed Jarod Ingersoll American Fork High School: American Fork Parents: Carl and Gene Ingersoll Birthplace: American Fork Sport: Baseball Position: Head coach Favorite sports team: All teams that make it to the College World Series, held every year in Nebraska Ne-braska Favorite food: Ruby River steaks Favorite restaurant: Famous Dave's Favorite book: The Storm Testament Testa-ment series Favorite movie: For the Love of the Game Hero: Dale Murphy Most memorable career moment: mo-ment: Hitting in eight RBi in a Southern Utah University baseball base-ball game against the University of Washington. Comments on coaching: "We have a senior-loaded team, and it's been great to see these kids play their hardest in games." SCOREBOARD Results March 18-28 Baseball 318 322 323 324 325 Won 12-4 Won 10-1 Lost 3-5 Lost 6-11 Won 13-0 Soccer Pleasant Grove Bngffion Jordan Murray Date 323 328 Lost 1-4 Won1-0(OT Tennis Result Lost 0-5 Orent Lehi Date 323 Opponent Lone Peak Upcoming games March 30-April 6 Baseball Dale 331 404 406 Time 3:30 p.m. 4 p.m. 4 p.m. Timpanogos Softtball Dale 330 404 406 Time 3.30 p.m. 3:30 p.m. 3:30 p.m. Span. Fork Timpanogos Lone Peak Soccer Date 330 404 406 Time 3:30 p.m. 4 p.m. 4 p.m. Bingham Lone Peak Span. Fork Tennis Dale 330 404 406 Time 3:30 p.m. 3:30 p.m. 3:30 p.m. Timpanogos PI. Grove Lone Peak Track Date 401 Time TBA UHSTCAmeet overtime by consecutive RBI doubles from Zimmerman and Baddley to give the Cavemen the final margin at the close of the sixth inning. "It was a good win over a good team," said Ingersoll. "Timpview has a good program and a good coach." Leading American Fork's offense were Holmstead, Zimmerman, Zim-merman, Baddley and Jones, who all had RBI doubles, while Draper, Spencer and Steve Parker added RBI singles. Brian Hassler filed this report. March 23 - Brighton 5, American Ameri-can Fork 3: The Cavemen started start-ed out the game by taking a 3-1 lead in the first inning, but then they nit a wall Brighton's defense. After giving up the three first-inning runs, Bengal pitcher Mike Drummond found his groove behind a stellar defense and went on to cruise for the complete-game victory. American Fork tried to battle back, but every time they started a rally, Brighton's defense de-fense would quickly extinguish it. After Brighton turned a 6-4-3 double play to end to sixth, Joyce crushed a fastball over the left-center field fence to seal the 5-3 victory for the visiting Bengals. Jace Anderson filed this report. I March 24 - Jordan 11, American Fork 6: At American Fork, the top-ranked Beetdiggers had 18 hits to beat the Cavemen. Steve Parker, Kyle Parkinson and Austin Haws all doubled for American Fork. I March 25 American Fork 13, Murray 0: The Cavemen picked up a dominating victory in a rescheduled game at Ken Price Field in Murray. See REWIND, Page 7 POO |