By Tom Zulewski
After winning the Region 9 championship earlier, the Cedar Reds girls golf team had big ambitions, but faced a bigger mountain on Day 2 at the 4A state championship. Needing to overcome a 13-stroke deficit and two teams in front of them, the Reds pulled off the comeback and got to bring home a state title for the first time.
Carding the low round of 335, Cedar won the 4A crown May 9 with a two-day total of 682, four strokes ahead of runner-up Green Canyon. First-round leader and Region 9 rival Crimson Cliffs finished five strokes back in third place.
On a day that featured tougher weather conditions at Talons Cove Golf Course in Saratoga Springs, senior RaeLee Johnson led the way with a round of 80 and finished tied for seventh in the individual standings with a 165 total for 36 holes. Taylyn Wilson shot a final-round 82 and was fifth overall at 162, one shot ahead of Crimson Cliffs’ Brynlee Bandley.
Sophomore Breelle Evans was 12th overall with two rounds of 84, good for 168. Denym Bohn completed Cedar’s team score for the final day with a round of 89.
-At the 3A baseball playoffs, the Canyon View Falcons overcame a challenge and punched its ticket to the best-of-3 championship series with three victories in the double-elimination tournament.
The run started May 6 at Larry H. Miller Field on the BYU campus with Zac Millett throwing a complete game and Bubba Ludlow scoring a big insurance run in the bottom of the fifth inning as the Falcons held off the Morgan Trojans with a 3-1 win. CV scored single runs in the third and fourth to take a 2-0 lead, but Morgan (22-10) cut the deficit in half in the top of the fifth on a two-out single by Tryker Jones.
The Falcons had the answer when it mattered as Ludlow tripled with one out and scored on a sacrifice fly by Asher Slack. Millett and the Canyon View defense did the rest, leaving two runners stranded in the top of the seventh to secure the victory.
On May 7, the Falcons survived another thriller and edged past Region 12 rival Emery, 4-3. The Spartans scored all of its runs in the top of the third to build a 3-0 lead, but Canyon View answered quickly with a three-run rally of its own in the bottom of the inning. Asher Slack had an RBI double, Ludlow scored on a wild pitch, and Zach Maine hit into a fielder’s choice to tie the game.
Ludlow helped CV break the tie in the bottom of the fifth when he led off with a walk, stole second, and scored on an error. Pitcher Jaxon Jensen allowed only three hits, walked three and struck out 11 to earn the win. He didn’t allow a base runner over the final two innings.
With a berth in the championship series on the line, the Falcons stumbled and fell 8-1 in a rematch with Morgan on May 8. The Trojans built an early 3-0 lead in the first two innings and broke the game open with five runs in the fifth.
Catcher Cameron Calvez broke up the Morgan shutout with an RBI single in the bottom of the third inning.
In the winner-take-all elimination game, Canyon View scored six runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and beat the Trojans, 10-3 on May 9 to earn their second trip to play for a state title and first since 2010. Jaren Bradshaw had the key blow in the sixth with a two-run single that capped off the rally.
Ludlow earned the win on the mound, allowing only four hits in five innings of work.