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Bear River and Farmington's softball teams pose next to a banner honoring Stan Haramoto, a former longtime BRHS softball assistant coach who died in December 2021, on April 20, 2022, in Garland.

Photo supplied, Farmington High softball

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Bear River High's softball team poses with the Region 11 championship trophy on Friday, May 7, 2022.

Bear River Softball Facebook

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Bear River High's softball team celebrates after winning the 4A softball state championship on Saturday, May 22, 2021, in Spanish Fork.

PATRICK CARR, Standard-Examiner

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GARLAND — In 28 games this regular season, Bear River High’s softball team has a 25-3 record, one of the best marks in the state.

The Bears have outscored their opponents by a total of 238-83, or an average of 8.5 runs scored and 2.96 runs allowed per game.

Bear River is in the 4A classification, and its record against 6A and 5A teams this year is 10-2. The Bears returned a handful of starters and key players from last season’s state-title-winning team.

After last Friday’s 7-4 win over Ridgeline that saw Bear River clinch another region championship, head coach Calvin Bingham pointed out finite details of that particular game and the season where he felt the Bears could improve.

Hitting, defense, pitching — yes, there’s still a lot of work to be done for a 25-3 team ahead of next week’s 4A state tournament in St. George.

“We went down to St. George the beginning of the year and we really struggled. We couldn’t hit the ball out of the infield, we managed to go 4-1, but we didn’t play well. And I think, quite frankly, that it’s amazing that we’re where we’re at considering how we started,” Bingham said. “It’s a great effort on the part of the kids.”

One only has to look to the outfield of Bear River’s home stadium and see all the state-championship banners to take a guess why the bar is set so high.

But the team has shown a lot of resolve this year, getting past a couple of big challenges so far. One of them is also revealed by looking at banners on the fence.

In December, the team’s longtime assistant coach, Stan Haramoto, died from COVID-19 at the age of 71. Haramoto was a fixture of Bear River softball for nearly three decades.

“He was a real friendly, funny guy. He didn’t speak a whole lot unless necessary. He would joke around, he never got mad, he’d just seek to improve,” senior McCall Maxfield said.

To honor Haramoto, there are now two banners hanging on the outfield fence. One is in right field, thanking him for his time with Bear River softball.

“Stan really knew the game, but he was also a great communicator with the girls and they respected him,” Bingham said.

The other is in left field and is a gift from Farmington High’s softball team. Farmington’s team presented it to Bear River’s team when the two played each other in April.

Farmington coach Jasey Fatongia said her team felt it could do something small to honor Haramoto.

“Softball is such an amazing sport, but relationships and wonderful coaches/people will always be remembered and never forgotten,” she said.

Bingham, who coached with Haramoto for more than two decades at BRHS, said the banner was a perfect tribute.

“I think that’s a real credit to Farmington. It shows that sportsmanship is above everything else,” Bingham said. “The night or the morning of, I don’t remember which, their coach just said ‘we’ve got something for you’ and I didn’t know anything about what she was talking about. But if you look at that banner, it is so Stan.

“What I got a kick out of, we could be playing a real tough team and if we’d win, when we’d get in line he’d always say, ‘You’re so lucky’ to me. ‘You’re so lucky.'”

The other challenge: the Bears didn’t have a home game until a few weeks after the season started. Their field was getting some upgrades — a new scoreboard, and artificial turf in a large part of the foul area between the dugouts and infield — so the team practiced at the school’s indoor Bear Center facility.

“I think it messed me up a little. The Bear Center, though we’re very grateful for it, has bad lighting and so everything’s better when you’re on a field,” Maxfield said.

Maxfield hit a home run to jumpstart a five-run fifth inning against Ridgeline last week, an inning that proved to be decisive.

While the team’s hitting has been up and down at times this season — Bingham said it has improved the past two weeks — and some positions had new, young starters, the pitching has been solid behind returners Kate Dahle and Jordyn Warren.

Dahle has been the team’s main starter this year after a breakout sophomore season that ended with her starting the title-clinching game of the 2021 state championship.

“(Dahle) really does have pretty good control. If she gets behind (in the count) she can — I’ve seen her get behind 3-0 and she’ll come back and get ’em. Sometimes pitchers, particularly in high school, they’ll get behind 3-0 and sooner or later they’ll walk them,” Bingham said.

The Bears are the No. 1 seed in the upcoming 4A state tournament and will get every team’s best effort in the postseason. They’ve gotten everyone’s best effort so far this season and are still 25-3, despite what work there is left to do.