High school softball: Depleted Spanish Fork defeats Stansbury

SPANISH FORK — Even without their star catcher, who has been out for over a week with a broken finger, the Spanish Fork Dons had what it took to come back from a 2-0 deficit to a first-year team and steal the 3-2 victory with the young squad now on the field.

The Dons, a strong softball school for as long as most people can remember, suffered several blows during the past couple of off-seasons, including losing young players to new schools Salem Hills and Maple Mountain, and losing players like Lindsey Healy to injuries.

But though the Dons are young this year with a lineup largely made up of sophomores and now a starting freshman behind the plate, they're picking up the Dons' legacy quickly and learning how to win ball games.

Spanish Fork currently stands at 3-5 in what Dons' coach Don Andrews says is the toughest preseason he's ever scheduled. And they just defeated a first-year Stansbury program that is now 6-2 with several players from last year's roster at Tooele.

"We've been getting better all season long with our hitting, but we're very young, and we've been leaving base runners by the pile load," said Andrews, whose team stranded eight against the Stallions.

For the first two innings, the Dons couldn't put much together at all, and the Stallions put together a nice pair of runs, picking up one in each of the first two.

A walk to Lindsey Guymon and a double by Karlee Manzione brought one across the plate in the first, and they picked up their second on singles by Aleesha Herrera and Hannah Allred and an error on Spanish Fork in the second..

But then the Dons put their defense and pitching together and only allowed a single Stansbury baserunner thereafter.

And while the Stallions were scoring their two early runs, the Dons were having a hard time with the Stansbury pitching as well.

"I don't know what she was throwing out there, but it sure had us guessing," said Andrews, whose team did eventually pick up seven hits on Herrera.

The Dons cut the lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the third as Kelli Hales walked, Dezlee Roberts looped a single into a hole in right center, and Sydney Butler picked up the RBI with a single to left, putting Spanish Fork's first run on the board.

Neither team was able to put any runs across through the next 2 1/2 innings until Spanish Fork once again put just enough together to bring one across in the sixth.