Late rally lifts Lions to win over Cavemen

AMERICAN FORK — A two-out rally in the seventh inning was the turning point to the Payson Lions' 13-10 victory on Thursday against the slumping American Fork Cavemen.

Losers of three of its last four games now, American Fork beat themselves with two unforced errors on defense and couldn't generate enough offense in the last three innings.

"That's a pretty good hitting ball club," said Payson coach Scott Haney of the Cavemen. "We were happy. We dodged a bullet in the sixth inning with their 2-3-4 hitters up."

Left-handed Payson hurler Garrett Steele forced the meat of A.F.'s lineup, Tyson Davis, Austin Haws and Shay Conder, into three easy outs to sustain the Lions one-run lead before his team's offense broke the game open in the seventh.

With two outs and the potential third out charging to beat the throw to first, Cavemen first basemen Hap Holmstead couldn't handle the throw, leaving the door open for Bryson Carter to rope a 2-RBI-triple down the right field line on the following at-bat. Carter would later score as well, giving Payson and Steele a four-run cushion.

"That one play was a big error, and our kids jumped on it," Haney said. "The last two games our kids have really hit it well. They're just making some adjustments that they haven't in the past.

Coming off a 19-hit game against Timpview on Tuesday, the Lions had 10 hits and got 11 free passes to first base, scoring runs in six of the seven innings. Tyler Newbold was 2-for-5 five with four RBIs and Devin Crouch had three singles and two RBIs for the Lions on the day.

Similar to American Fork's game on Tuesday against Spanish Fork, the Cavemen struggled out of the box, finding themselves down by four runs after the top half of the first inning. But rather than repeating the mistake of getting shutout again, Haws put his team on the board with a two-out home run. The Cavemen chipped away at the lead in each of the first four innings and had the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the seventh, but could only get one run down the stretch.

Payson starter Justin Jenson recorded the win for the Lions, pitching three innings and allowing seven hits.

"He's only pitched four innings all year, and he came out and did a pretty good job for us," Haney said. "Most of their runs were scored with two outs, and some of those runs were unearned. I think both of us need to pitch a little better though."