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Show Vikes bring home state 3-A trophy - ' ' ' - i" - ..' i By JACK HILL It takes three things to win a state championship - good players, good coaching and luck. Pleasant Grove had all three last week and came home with the 3-A State Baseball trophy after beating Dixie, 7-2, in Saturday's championship game. Jeff Harris was one very good player who carried the Vikes in the championship game. Harris, whose arm was sore, told Coach Bahr, "There's no way you're going to keep me out of the final game." Harris struck out 11 Dixie Flyers while scattering 8 hits to become the winning pitcher. On offense, Harris went 2-2, including a tremendous three-run homerun over the wall in center at Derks Field. Harris' home run came in the third inning when the Vikes were leading 1-0 after Cody Bell's first inning sacrifice fly had scored Scott Jensen. In the fifth, Harris bounced a double off the left field wall to score Bell, who had singled. Wayne Joe Taylor drove in Harris and David Flinders got a hit to score Taylor, giving the Vikes a 7-0 lead after five innings. Dixie picked up lone runs in the sixth and seventh innings. After pitching Wednesday against Spanish Fork, a game the Vikes lost, 14-7, Harris was not shaken. "I felt that the umpire just didn't give me any corners," said Harris. However, against Spanish Fork, the Vikes made far too many base running mistakes to have a chance at winning. Lady Luck and coaching came dramatically into play on Thursday as the Vikes battled Murray in a loser's bracket game. After falling behind 10-6, PG was faced with a "do-or-die" seventh inning. Corey Carter walked, Jensen singled and Bell walked to load the bases. A strike out was followed by Mike Albrecht's RBI base-on-balls making the score 10-7 with one out. Wayne Joe Taylor's sacrifice fly scored Jensen, but the Vikes still trailed by two runs asnd were down to their final out. Burke Watkins, PG's third baseman, who had pitched the entire game, singled in Bell to pull the Vikes to within a run. Then coaching came into play. With the game on the line, Coach Alan Bahr sent junior Shane Duvall in to pinch hit. Duvall looked at two strikes and worked the count to 2-2. PG was one strike away from being eliminated when Duvall singled to socre Albrecht and tie the game. The Murray catcher, failing to get Albrecht at the plate, tried to get Watkins sliding into third, but the throw went into left field and Watkins raced home with the winning run. Adam Taylor, PG's winning pitcher in the opening day game against Pineview, 8-3, took the mound Friday against Dixie, the tourney's only undefeated team. Taylor struck out 13 and held Dixie to four hits and the Vikes ran away with the win, 12-2. Another stroke of coaching genius happened Saturday morning against Payson. The Lions had battered PG for 19 runs on May 12, so Coach Bahr elected to go with Shawn Young, a senior pitcher whose slow curves and "junk," proved to be too much for Payson. Young scattered five hits, struck out four and held the potent Payson offense to a single run as PG won 6-1 6-1 to advance into the championship game. "Young was just great," is the way Bahr summed up the performance per-formance by the lanky redhead. As the PG fans and players erupted onto the field following the final out, a fly ball to center caught by Jensen, Bahr was on a cloud as everyone celebrated the first ever PGHS State Baseball Crown. Bahr was very quick to point out that the title partly belonged to Jon Hoover, long time PG head coach who had taken the year off to help at BYU. "Jon (Hoover) deserves a lot of credit," said Bahr, as he fondly admired the gold state championship cham-pionship trophy. "Hoover coached these kids the last two years," Balir added. Bahr also had good words and praise for assistant coach John Wardenburg. "John (Wardenburg) has been a tremendous help," said Bahr. Darrin Henry, Viking sophomore catcher, caught every game of the tourney and did a great job for PG. With good players, good coaching and some luck, the Vikes were able to put the gold state trophy, the first ever in baseball, into the trophy case and, of course, a bundle of memories in reserve for all who follow PG High baseball. A time to give thanks is shared by the state championship team and coaches. "t ? " ; I . . , 5 I it . u Ml 4 K -Ax : ft.. -a r ' f Clint Kelly, Travis "Monk" Hansen and David Erickson yell encouragement during final game. Coach Alan Bahr admires the state trophy as assistant coach John Wardenburg War-denburg gives Bahr a pat on the back. |