High school softball: Bears claim 4th straight state title with dramatic ninth-inning win

ST. GEORGE — Aleisha Taylor's bat picked an excellent moment to make a dramatic entrance in the state 3A softball tournament.

With her Bear River Bears down a run in the ninth inning of Saturday's championship matchup against the Canyon View Falcons, the junior right fielder hit a walk-off two-RBI single to shallow centerfield to clinch both the 8-7 victory and the Bears' fourth consecutive title.

"Aleisha started out the year gangbusters," said Bear River head coach Calvin Bingham, referring to Taylor's four doubles in two days at the start of the season. "She kind of tapered off a little bit but this game she had a couple of hits and I thought she had really good at-bats every time she got up there. It doesn't surprise me for her to get the big hit."

Big plays and mental errors were common throughout the marathon contest as both teams took turns controlling the momentum. It was Canyon View that scored first on a bizarre exchange in the third inning.

Kenzie Evans and Kenzii Redd both singled to right field, setting up runners on second and third with two outs. Kensie Hogget then added her own single, an infield hit to the left side which Bear River shortstop Kelli Smart and third baseman Erin Fox collided trying to field. Evans scored easily, but when Redd tried to follow, Bears pitcher Jordan Theurer picked up the ball and tossed it to catcher Tyree Haramoto, who dove superman-style for the tag out.

Bear River got on the scoreboard in the fourth with a three-run home run from Smart, but the Falcons took advantage of a handful of Bears miscues to regain the lead, 5-3, in the top of the fifth.

Ginessa Delange led off the inning with a double, Kenzie Sawyer, Savannah Eckhart, and Brielle Nicholes each followed up with singles, and Bear River committed three errors to plate the four Falcon runs.

Taylor got her first hit of the day and eventually scored on a Bobi Webb RBI-single in the fifth inning, and then Theurer scored when Smart sent a sacrifice fly to deep center, tying the score at five runs apiece.

"I was (getting nervous for a second game)," Smart said. "In the seventh inning I had some doubts. I started thinking, 'what am I going to say to pump up the team for the next game?' But then I just decided, 'you know what, we're going to win this one.'"

It took two additional innings for the Bears to end it. The International Tiebreaker rule was put into effect for the extra play, which called for a runner on second base to start the inning.