5A high school baseball: Lone Peak holds T-Wolves offense in check

OREM — Lone Peak pitcher Blake Lewis would like to forget what happened the first time the Knights faced Timpanogos back in April.

Lewis and his teammates endured a flurry of hits and runs that ended with the T-Wolves posting an astonishing tally of 35 hits and 22 runs against their defense. The worst part of it all for the senior was his own performance.

"First time we faced them, I came out and didn't do too well in the first inning and it just went down from there," Lewis said.

Memories of his latest encounter with Timpanogos will be much better. Lewis struck out five batters to help hold the T-Wolves offense in check en route to an 8-5 victory for Lone Peak in a 5A baseball tournament elimination game on Tuesday afternoon at Utah Valley University.

Lewis threw a complete game for the Knights — his first since leading Lone Peak to an 11-1 victory over Rancho (Nev.) back in March. Knights coach Mike LaHargoue credited his pitcher with coming up with a clutch performance fitting for a senior.

"He threw strikes," LaHargoue said. "Changed speeds a little bit and kept them off-balance. They had some good swings on him, but he kept them off-balance enough where they couldn't swat at his ball."

Timpanogos senior Tanner Wolfe did not enjoy the same sort of solid start from the mound as Lewis did. Both of Lone Peak's first two runs were scored by batters that initially got on base after being hit by one of Wolfe's pitches.

The T-Wolves bounced back from that 2-0 deficit in the bottom of the second. Christian Turley doubled to center field to lead off and came home on a wild pitch for Timpanogos' first run. Luke Johnson made it 2-2 when he singled to right field to send in Colton Laird.

That proved to be as close as the T-Wolves could get. Lone Peak quickly took control again in the third. After getting two quick outs, the Knights then went up 4-2 when Brian Nielson blasted a ball deep to right field to bring home Adam Kelsch and Kade Andrus.

Lone Peak made it 6-3 in the fifth when Kelsch and Brayden Matheson belted balls to center field on consecutive at-bats to bring in runners. The Knights extended that lead to 8-3 in the sixth when Kelsch blasted it to center field again to send in pinch runners Kim LaHargoue and Michael Downs.

"We typically put some runs on the board," coach LaHargoue said. "That's kind of been our strength. When we made our team, we went more for the offensive side than the defensive side."

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