OCR Text |
Show Thursday, May 8, 2008 AMERICAN FORK CITIZEN Page 7 COMMUNITY SPORTS, PEOPLE AND OUTDOOR FUN Playoff races in all sports heat up down the stretch Beky Beaton NORTH COUNTY There were still playoff berths up for grabs heading into the final two days of the regular season (records as of Tuesday night). In baseball, Lone Peak (7-2, 14-5) grabbed a share of the Region 4 title by defeating Pleasant Grove (3-6, 13-8), since Timpanogos (6-3, 17-4) also beat Spanish Fork (6-3, 16-5). If the Knights were able to duplicate that feat last night, they will have secured the outright out-right title. If the Vikings won, however, Lone Peak would have tied with the winner of the rematch between the Tim-berwolves Tim-berwolves and the Dons and the region tiebreaker formula comes into play. Lone Peak would get the top seed if they tied with Timpanogos, but a tie with Spanish Fork would result in the seeding being settled by a coin flip. The loser of the Spanish Fork-Timpanogos game would have fallen into a tie with American Fork (54, 13-8), assuming as-suming the Cavemen were able to beat the Pioneers last night. The Dons own the tiebreaker over American Fork, but the Cavemen would get the nod over Timpanogos. The loss to Lone Peak eliminated elimi-nated a good Viking team (3-6, 13-8) from the playoffs for the second year in a row, even though there are many teams with worse records who will get in. In Softball, the Vikings (64, 10-10) finished up strong with a shocking upset of previously-undefeated Spanish Fork (9-1, 20-1) and a solid win over Lehi (7-3, 16), but they could overtake neither team in the standings and finished in the third slot. The fourth and final berth is still undetermined as American Fork (3-6, 11-10) and Timpanogos (2-7, 10-9) play a delayed regular-season game this afternoon. If the Cavemen win, they will get the fourth seed. If Timpanogos wins, however, the teams will be tied and will have to play again to determine who gets the playoff berth. Lone Peak (2-8, 6-14) slipped into last place with a pair of close losses in the final two games. The boys soccer race still has some drama left as well heading into the final games of the regular season this afternoon. after-noon. Lehi (7-0-2) is still in the driver's seat, but the Vikings (4-3-2, 94-2) have a shot to take over the third spot if they can beat the Pioneers. They will need some help from the Knights (7-1-1, 7-5-3), who must beat Timpanogos (5-3-1, 6-8-1) to keep their own hopes of a region title alive. If Pleasant Grove can manage man-age to beat Lehi and Lone Peak wins, the Knights get the region title and the Vikings get the third seed. If not, the Pioneers Pio-neers will get the crown and the Timberwolves will finish third. American Fork (1-8-0, 2-12-0) and Spanish Fork (0-9-0, 0-14-1) will just be playing for pride against each other as they close out the season. Region 4 is matched against Region 1 in the first round of the playoffs this year. The top seed plays the fourth seed and No. 2 and No. 3 play each other. Tournament play for all three sports gets underway on Tuesday at home sites. Baseball continues Wednesday, Wednes-day, softball on Thursday and soccer on Friday at home sites before shifting to the state venues ven-ues the following week. prat American Fork track team shows well at BYU Invitational Dean Von Memmott SPORTS CORRESPONDENT The American Fork track team had teammates place in four events at the BYU Invitational, held Saturday for the 5A, 4A and 3A classifications. Ben Felix finished third in the boys 1,600-meter run in 426.73. It was the only event he did at the meet. Daniel Litchford took sixth in the shot " put, and he finished 19th in the discus. American Fork coach Art Taylor said, "Litchford should be able to win region in both the shot put and the discus, "He set a new personal record in the shot put with his throw of 38-feet-8 inches, which is just eight inches short of the school record. He set a new personal record re-cord when he threw the discus for 49-5-4," the coach added. The American Fork girls medley relay team took seventh. The squad's members included Samantha Knight, Audrey Lewis, Lew-is, Rochelle Stevens and Dani West. Taylor said, "Bruno Hunziker the girls track coach put the medley relay team together with sprinters and long distance runners." Alexis Laws took seventh In the 3,200-meter 3,200-meter race. Taylor said, "Her splits in the 3,200 were a little bit off today, but she should still be able to qualify for state in the 3,200 and 800 at region this coming week. "She's just a sophomore. So is Dani West, another long distance runner for us." :- Ben Christ ensen: finished 13th in the boys 110-meter hurdles. He said, "My best event is the 300 hurdles. I qualified for the state 110 hurdles during the Asics Invita-tionaL Invita-tionaL I expect to be better in it at region, because I know the sprinters in our region re-gion better than the ones at this meet." Taylor said, "Christensen is one of the top hurdlers in the region and county. Alan Smith has been there right behind him. We expect both of them to place high at region." Results Saturday tram the BYU (nvfarjonal3A-4A-5A high school track meet Results include top two in each division plus local athletes In the top eight .; - Boyi Team scorac 1 Davis 66. 2. Fremont 43. 3. Rlveerton 32, 4. Box Elder 29 5 Skyline 28, 6. Bingham 27. 7, Judge 26. 8. Snow Canyon 23, 9 Spanish fork 22, 10, Viewmont 20, 1 1 . (tie) Oram, Mountain view, Hurncane 19, 15. (tie) Timpanogos, Cedar 16, 17. Timpview 15. 19. (tie) Pleasant Grave, Layton, Granstsville 11, 26. (tie) American Fork. Weber, Dixie 9, 32 Delta 7, 38 Lone Peak 5, 39 (he) Provo, Wasatch, Alta, t f .Jgs'- . A 1 1 in Y BRIGHAM YOUNG 0 Y MARK JOHNSTONNorth County See TRACK, Page 8 American Fork's Ben Christensen competes in the boys 300-meter hurdles at the BYU Invitational on Saturday. Pitcher powers Cavemen baseball past Timpanogos Russ Lyman NORTH COUNTY A year ago, American Fork's Nate Pitcher delivered . a walk-off single against Timpanogos in the bottom of the eighth to give the Cavemen a share of the Region 4 title. On Thursday afternoon in American Fork, he did it again. With two outs in the bottom of the seventh and the game tied at 7-7, Pitcher ripped a 1-0 pitch into left to score pinch runner Jake Miller and give the Cavemen a dramatic 8-7 win. Pitcher, who had grounded out to second with two outs and the bases loaded two innings in-nings earlier, rounded first with his fist raised before running run-ning to home plate to join his teammates in the celebration. "He had a chance to get us . a couple of runs in the fifth, so I was thinking he was looking for another chance, and boy he didn't miss that pitch," said American Fork coach Jarod Ingersoll. "He's a guy I want,to be up in that situation." Pitcher added, "I want to be up there (in that situation) because be-cause I have confidence in myself my-self and we all have confidence , in each other that we're going to get it done. I recognized a fastball and hit it good." After Timpanogos tied the game up in the top half of the seventh, Randy Searle started off the bottom half of the inning in-ning with a great at-bat that ended with him lining a 3-2 pitch into left. Jake Perry tried to advance Searle with a bunt, but T'Wolf reliever Taylor Lyons fielded the ball and threw to second to get the lead runner. Lyons struck out the next batter and walked Bo Fisher, which brought Pitcher to the plate for the game's final at-bat. Despite the tie, American Fork was fortunate not to give up more in the top of the sev enth, considering the T'Wolves had runners on second and third with no outs. The tying run came across when Kellen McWhorter earned an RBI sacrifice fly after fouling foul-ing off five straight 0-2 pitches. Mitch Foster, who already had three hits in the game, flew out with the bases loaded to end the inning. American Fork drew first blood when Fisher doubled and scored in the bottom of the first. Timpanogos answered with three runs in the top of the second, highlighted by Jordan Jor-dan Mehlhoffs two-RBI single. For the second time in two games, Fisher got his team back into the game with a homer. hom-er. This time it was a three-run shot over the right field fence that put the Cavemen up 4-3 in the second. Perry's two-RBI double in the third put American Ameri-can Fork up 64. Timpanogos threatened in each of the final three innings, but could only plate one run each time. : Jarett Pulsipher gave the Cavemen a quality start before leaving in the sixth. In addition addi-tion to getting the win on the mound, Searle had a hot day at the plate, going 3-for4. Pitcher and Josh Mooney each added a pair of hits. Fisher continued to produce as one of the hottest hitters in the state, going 3-for-3 with two doubles and a homer. He was also intentionally walked twice. "I just feel real good right now and am seeing the ball and connecting," Fisher said. "I keep hitting the pitches I'm looking for." Fisher played a major role in American Fork getting two of its biggest wins of the season. Coming into this week's series against Timpanogos, the Cavemen Cave-men had lost four in a row, but now are in an excellent position posi-tion to secure a playoff spot. "I like where we're at, we're a good team," Ingersoll said. "We're bringing it together and I think we're starting to believe. Our backs were against the wall and we came out and did what we had to do." Fisher thinks that American Fork is beginning to peak at the right time. "Just coming in, we knew that we've got to at least win one," Fisher said. "I think that we stepped it up real big and that we're going to get real hot for the playoffs." I May S - American Fork 11, Lehi 0: The Cavemen defeated the Pioneers in a five-inning contest in Region 4 action at Lehi. It took the Cavemen 1 Va innings in-nings to grab the upperhand. In the top of the first, Pioneer pitcher Josh Swenson caused the first two Cavemen to fly out, and he struck out the third See REWIND, Page 8 prefl fa, m Mfimt Fil i Shelby Swapp American Fork High School Parents: Don Swapp and Christine Chris-tine Rhinehart Age: 18 Year: Senior Sport: Softball Position: Shortstop and first base Birthplace: Provo Favorite sports team: Boston Red Sox Favorite food: Popcorn Favorite restaurant: McDonald's Favorite book: Twilight Favorite movie: Drop Dead Fred Favorite class: English Most memorable career moment: mo-ment: "Hitting my first home run in a tournament at Ephraim last summer." Future plans: To attend Utah Valley University. American Fork head softball coach Duke Sorensen said: "I've been coaching her for the past six years. She's come a long way from her days on the recreation recre-ation league team that I coached with her dad. Half of the varsity girls on this year's team were on that squad. When she's having problems with her hitting, she stays after practice to work on her batting. She's done really well on her hitting this year." AM. FORK HOOPS Registration open for annual basketball camp Registrations are now being be-ing accepted for the annual American Fork basketball summer skills camp. The event is set for June 2-6 in the high school main gym. Fees include a camp T-shirt and awards. Sign up for the grade to be entered in the fall. Sessions are as follows. Grades 3-6: 8 to 10 a.m., $65. Grades 7-9: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., $75. I Grades 10-12: 2 to 5 p.m., $75. Individual skill and team instruction will be directed by varsity head coach Doug Meacham and assistant coaches Lynn Anderson and Bob Eckles. Forms are available at the school. Checks can be sent by mail until May 27, or brought the first day of the camp. For more information, contact coach Meacham at 756-8547 (ext. 194). I American Fork golf: The date has been announced for the third annual AFHS alumni golf tournament, sponsored by and to benefit the basketball program. The event is scheduled sched-uled for Fox Hollow Golf Course on June 7. The four-man scramble will begin be-gin with a shotgun start at 7:30 a.m. Prizes will be awarded throughout the course and for the top teams. Participation Participa-tion is open to American Fork alumni and all others are welcome. Tournament and hole sponsorships are also available. avail-able. Tournament sponsorships spon-sorships are $200, which allows advertising throughout through-out the course. Those unable to participate partici-pate in the tournament are still invited to make donations dona-tions to the program. Those interested in sponsoring any part of the event or who have any other questions are asked to contact Eric Franson at (801)592-3224 or Doug Meacham at (801)602-9927 before June 4. t Youth soccer: Tryouts are upcoming for the Xtreme' SC AAA U-15 boys soccer team, for boys whose birthday birth-day falls between Aug.l, 1993 and July 31. 1994. The tryout will be held on Saturday, May 24, at 9 a.m. at the American Fork High School soccer field and should last no more than two hours. Players are requested to bring cleats, shin guards and a water bottle. For more information, contact Wayne Prestgard at 472-7686. T |