High school baseball: East rallies to beat Salem Hills in 4A tourney

SPRINGVILLE — Crew Carlson was insulted.

With his East team tied with Salem Hills in the bottom of the sixth in a 4A tournament second round game on Friday afternoon, the Leopards' clean-up hitter watched incredulously as the Skyhawks intentionally walked teammate Tyler Blood to pitch to him.

Carlson made them pay.

He lined a single to left to give East its go-ahead run in a 7-6 win over Salem Hills, and continued the Leopards' most remarkable baseball season in decades. Earlier in the day, East beat Westlake 5-4 in a first-round game at Springville High.

"I thought it was stupid on their part," Carlson said of Salem Hills' decision to pitch to him instead of Blood. "I was seeing the ball really well and I've been hitting the ball really hard. I think it was kind of stupid that they walked him to get to me."

The move made sense from a strategic standpoint. Mickey Taylor led off the sixth with a single and advanced to third with two outs. Blood was walked, giving Salem Hills another out option at second. It just so happened that Carlson declined to play along.

"I felt really good," Carlson said. "I felt like I already did it before I stepped up to the plate. I had that much confidence. I knew that they were down and that would just knock them out."

Carlson wasn't done finishing off the Skyhawks. He relieved starter Nate Lords with the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh, and struck out the final batter of the game to pick up the save.

Lords had a gutsy performance, throwing 150 pitches. He fell behind 6-0 in the second inning before buckling down to quiet the Skyhawks the rest of the way. He said he wasn't necessarily gassed in the seventh, just that he could no longer find the strike zone.

Lords struggled in the first couple of innings — but like all of the Leopards on Friday he kept battling and made positive things happen.

"I knew my team would come back for me like they always do," Lords said. "Even when I give up runs in those first innings, they always battle back for me. We just kept battling and battling."

Taylor got East on the scoreboard in the second with an RBI single, and Brad Biddulph — who made a spectacular pair of plays in right field against Westlake in the first game of the day — ripped a bases-clearing double to make it 6-4. East tied it when Chase Barney perfectly executed a suicide squeeze in the fifth.