High school baseball: Lone Peak puts it all together to beat Copper Hills

OREM — It came a couple of days later than they preferred, but the Lone Peak Knights played one of their best games of the season on Monday afternoon.

Lone Peak whipped Copper Hills, 16-4, in five innings in a 5A state tournament one-loss bracket game. It was the type of performance the Knights needed in a tournament showdown against 5A favorite Bingham on Saturday. Lone Peak lost that game, 14-4.

Although their timing was off, the reigning 5A champions fought off elimination with the blowout victory.

"This was probably the best game we've played in a month or two," said Lone Peak coach Mike LaHargoue.

The Knights jumped out to a 9-0 lead over the Grizzlies after three innings. Dane Petersen blasted a grand slam in the second to quickly put Copper Hills in a big hole.

The Grizzlies made it somewhat interesting by scoring four runs in the fourth, but the Knights quickly responded. Lone Peak scored seven runs in the bottom of the inning to put it away.

"Credit Copper Hills — they battled, put up four and made it a game," LaHargoue said. "And our guys turned around and kind of shut the door pretty quickly. It was nice to see us respond like that."

Petersen threw four innings for the Knights, allowing just three hits while striking out six. He was thrown a little out of rhythm before the game started, as he warmed up and then had to sit through a rain delay. The game started about 90 minutes late because of rain.

"It was definitely tough," Petersen said. "You go out and throw 30 pitches and already you're a little bit off and then you go out and throw again. I came out and threw (after the delay) and did well. I was ready to go."

Petersen was even more ready at the plate, as his grand slam deflated the Grizzlies.

"The grand slam was a big-time hit right there at that juncture of the game," LaHargoue said.

The Knights also got big performances at the plate from Dakota Murdock, Mitch Call, Macay Hunter and Parker Kinkade. Murdock and Call each had two hits and three RBIs. Hunter had two hits and two RBIs, and Kinkade homered.

Lone Peak hopes its journey through the one-loss bracket is only beginning. The Knights have mostly recovered from a late-season collapse that cost them the Region 4 championship and gave them a tougher road in the tournament. The Knights play Riverton in another elimination game on Tuesday.

"We didn't do ourselves any favors, dropping five out of seven (late in the regular season)," LaHargoue said. "We put ourselves in this position so now we got to go deal with it."

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