5A high school softball playoffs: American Fork stays alive in one-loss bracket

TAYLORSVILLE — The American Fork Cavemen continued their triumphant run through the season with an 8-3 victory over Region 4 foe Pleasant Grove, picking up the victory in the first round of the one-loss bracket at Valley Softball Complex.

The Cavemen, who made their way into the state tournament for the first time since 2002 and are the fourth-place team from their league, dispatched Pleasant Grove as they picked up four runs in two big innings to take the heart out of the Vikings.

The Cavemen were the only team from Region 4 to make it past the third round of the tournament.

Pleasant Grove was the first team to pick up a score with a pair of runs on three singles in the bottom of the second inning by Torrey Best, Regan Webber and Mackenzie Larson, who picked up both RBIs.

But then they couldn't score again until the bottom of the sixth.

Before then American Fork picked up four runs in the top of the fourth on three singles of their own and a walk. Amy Krommenhoek started things off, followed by a walk to Haley Holmstead and singles for Mallory Davis and Kayla Sorenson, who scored the two RBIs.

And not long after the Vikings tightened things up to 4-3 in the bottom of the sixth, the Cavemen decided to double their own total with a pair of walks, an error, and a double by Davis to the center field fence.

"We made a couple of mistakes in that one inning, and we didn't score when we should have, let them score a couple more, and it was a pretty tough hill to climb," said Pleasant Grove coach Kale Gillman after the loss.

They ran out of gas in the next round against Layton, losing 9-0, but the team was still proud of their accomplishment.

American Fork assistant coach Rebecca Murdock, who said, "We're super excited to get this far from the four seed. Nobody expected us to be here. I'm proud of this team. They did a great job."

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