High school softball: Hadli Sorenson the difference for Buffaloes in 4A tournament

TAYLORSVILLE — For six innings, the new-and-improved Mountain Crest Mustangs stuck right with the traditionally strong Tooele Buffaloes. But in the top of the seventh of the 4A softball winner's bracket semifinal on Thursday evening, Tooele's experience proved to be a great advantage.

Buffalo head coach Steve Snow said the difference could be summed up in two words: "Hadli Sorenson."

The junior center fielder blasted a grand slam over the left field fence to boost Tooele to the 8-3 victory and send them to their ninth consecutive championship game.

"There's nothing like it as far as getting the adrenaline flowing," Snow said of playing for a title. "You'd think you'd get used to it but these softball state championship games are just intense."

He added that, while Sorenson was the player who hit the grand slam, it wasn't just that play that made the difference.

"I don't want to give her all the credit because there were some great at-bats before that. Seven, eight, nine in the line up — we needed base runners, they got on. And then Hadli got her pitch and took it."

Holding a 4-3 lead going into the final inning, Tooele was looking to regain the game's momentum. Starley Pollei started the inning off on the right foot with a lead-off double. Cheyenne and Chance Hegsted followed up with successive doubles to set up Sorensen's big hit.

"I didn't know it was fair but I just ran," Sorenson said of her own hit, which landed just a few feet inside of fair territory. "It felt good so I was just running until somebody told me to stop."

Mountain Crest scored first when Kelsey Benson hit a solo home run to lead off the second inning. Tooele responded with three runs in the top of the third. Sorenson and Kirsten Zander each reached base with a walk and then catcher Marissa Mendenhall hit her own home run to center field.

Sorensen added an RBI-double, scoring Cheyenne Hagsted, in the fifth inning to give Tooele a 4-2 advantage. The Mustangs pulled back within one in the bottom of the sixth with a McKenzie Anderson RBI-triple.

"That's the best 4A team we've faced all season," Snow said of the Mustangs, who won just four games two years ago and were .500 last season. "Very sharp, well-coached, and their pitcher (Jordan Smith) threw well. Probably the toughest adjustment we've had to any pitcher this year just because she spotted the ball well and she spun it quite a bit. We had a tough time getting on her."