State softball: Fremont, Bountiful win 1st games Wednesday, but both eliminated by top seeds
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- Fremont High’s Brinley Ellsworth throws a pitch in a 6A softball state tournament game against Mountain Ridge Wednesday, May 25, 2022 at Big Cottonwood Regional Park.
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- Fremont High’s Brinley Johnson (21) celebrates hitting a walk-off home run in a 6A softball state tournament game against Mountain Ridge Wednesday, May 25, 2022 at Big Cottonwood Regional Park.
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- Fremont High’s Haddie Hadley (8) catches a fly ball in a 6A softball state tournament game against Mountain Ridge on May 25, 2022 at Big Cottonwood Regional Park.
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- Bountiful High’s Eva Stoddard throws a pitch in a 5A softball state tournament game against Wasatch on Wednesday, May 25, 2022 at Big Cottonwood Regional Park.
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- Bountiful High’s Katelynn Rogers receives a throw in a 5A softball state tournament game against Wasatch on Wednesday, May 25, 2022 at Big Cottonwood Regional Park.
MILLCREEK — As the Fremont High softball team walked to the dugout Wednesday, the first person head coach Mandy Koford sought out was senior pitcher Brinley Ellsworth.
For four state-tournament games, and really 2 1/2 months, the Silverwolves leaned a lot on Ellsworth. But their postseason run ended at Big Cottonwood Regional Park against a buzzsaw, No. 1-seeded Riverton team by a 10-0 final in five innings.
“Truthfully, Brinley still pitched a pretty good game. That last inning we let a few things drop that obviously we shouldn’t have. Just the groundhog day-esque type feel of this tournament when you kind of — you can prepare as much as you can, you want it as much as you can, but they’re a dang good team over there,” Koford said.
No. 4 Fremont (21-5) had two baserunners against Riverton pitcher Kaysen Korth in a base hit by Brinley Johnson and a first-inning walk by Keysha McKean.
Korth, a Weber State signee, struck out five batters in five innings of work and drove in a run at the plate. Ellsworth got tagged for 10 runs (seven earned) in 4 2/3 innings.
“I know that it’s cliché to say it’s a special team. This really has been a team where top-to-bottom, there’s been no conflict. They’ve been the best supporters, I have the greatest leadership in my five seniors,” Koford said. “Especially toward the end (of the season), Ellsworth turned it on and said yeah let’s go. I told her we’d go as far as she could take us. I thought she did a heck of a job all tournament long.”
For the second day in a row, Fremont beat No. 5 Mountain Ridge with a walk-off hit.
Tuesday, freshman Savannah Palmatier hit a two-run walk-off single in the eighth inning. This time, Brinley Johnson hit a three-run homer to left field in sixth inning to secure a 12-2, walk-off, run-rule win.
It was Johnson’s second homer of the day, and she drove in five RBIs and scored all four times she went to the plate (two homers, two walks). Keysha McKean hit 3 for 3 and scored three runs.
Ellsworth pitched six innings with seven strikeouts against three hits and two runs allowed to keep intact a pretty good playoff run in the morning win over Mountain Ridge.
“It was awesome,” Ellsworth said of how far Fremont went in the playoffs. “We worked our butts off. I mean, things didn’t end up how we wanted it to but all the effort we put in was incredible, and this team was something different and I’m excited I got to be a part of it.
She needed 87 pitches to get through the six-inning Mountain Ridge game, an important shorter outing ahead of the Riverton game — the same situation where she started to tire on Tuesday. Fatigue really started to set in on Wednesday, she said.
“My arm might fall off, but that’s OK. I gave it all I had,” Ellsworth said.
Wednesday’s results were the same as Tuesday’s: a win over Mountain Ridge and a loss to Riverton. Ultimately, Fremont couldn’t get going at the plate against Riverton both times.
“You always hate this day because I know how much I’m going to miss them,” Koford said.
5A TOURNAMENT
Bountiful High softball’s path in the final eight of the 5A state tournament this season followed last year’s path.
The Redhawks lost their first game by a run, won the next two games in the one-loss bracket, then lost to No. 1 Spanish Fork in a pitchers’ duel.
Bountiful fell to the No. 1 Dons 3-0 and saw its season come to an end Wednesday with a 21-7-1 record.
“I think we really played well. Wwe were scared the first game (Tuesday against Wasatch) and we played scared, made some errors and lost it 3-2. That was basically one inning,” coach Butch Latey said. “After that, we played well.”
Against Spanish Fork, pitcher Eva Stoddard pitched the entire game, allowing 10 hits and three runs. It was a 1-0 ballgame until the sixth inning when the Dons scored twice.
Stoddard and Malissa Turpin had the only base hits for the Redhawks. Three players walked but scoring chances were few and far between.
“I think if we could’ve put it in play, it would’ve been a better game,” Latey said.
In the one-loss bracket game earlier Wednesday, Bountiful got its revenge against No. 5 Wasatch with a 9-4 win against the Wasps.
Stoddard hit two home runs, drove in four and struck out four in a complete game pitched. Isabeau Hoff had three RBIs, a double and a stolen base.