Prep baseball: In another competitive series, Davis edges Fremont with run production
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- Davis High’s Tyson Baggett, right, slides into home against Fremont catcher Grady Garrett on Friday, April 19, 2024, in Plain City.
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- Davis High’s Carter Garrett swings at a Fremont pitch on Friday, April 19, 2024, in Plain City.
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- Fremont’s Brigg Grange runs the bases against Davis on Friday, April 19, 2024, in Plain City.
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- Davis High’s Wally Grant slides head first into home plate in a game against Fremont on Friday, April 19, 2024, in Plain City.
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- Fremont’s Garet Jones runs to first base during a game against Davis on Friday, April 19, 2024, in Plain City.
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- Davis High’s Kaleb Weaver rears back to throw a pitch against Fremont on Friday, April 19, 2024, in Plain City.
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- Fremont’s Logan Penland swings at a Davis pitch on Friday, April 19, 2024, in Plain City.
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- Davis High’s Seth Jarman runs the bases in a game at Fremont on Friday, April 19, 2024, in Plain City.
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- Fremont’s Kobe Nance rears back to throw a pitch against Davis on Friday, April 19, 2024, in Plain City.
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- Davis High’s Kaleb Weaver swings at a Fremont pitch on Friday, April 19, 2024, in Plain City.
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- Fremont’s Owen Simkins runs the bases in a game against Davis on Friday, April 19, 2024, in Plain City.
PLAIN CITY — After tight pitcher’s duels in the first two games of the Davis and Fremont high school boys baseball series, the Darts put up eight runs Friday and it looked to be more than enough with sophomore ace right-hander Kaleb Weaver on the mound.
But Fremont scored four runs in the sixth inning, added another in the seventh against two Davis relievers, and had the bases juiced with one out.
Junior Croydon Christensen, pitching in his third game of the series for the Darts, then got Brigg Grange to pop out to short right field and, when shortstop Max Hunter squeezed another pop fly, Davis escaped with an 8-5 victory over the Silverwolves — taking the rubber match of the Region 1 series.
“(Kaleb) wanted to finish it, but you could tell he was getting tired and they’d seen him three times through the lineup,” Davis coach Josh Godfrey said. “Croydon threw 28 pitches on Wednesday and closed out yesterday on eight pitches. The rules say if you pitch more than 75 pitches in two days, you have to have a day of rest; he’d only thrown 36, so we rolled him back out there. He’s been a solid closer for us all year.”
Davis (12-4, 4-2 Region 1) moved back into a tie with Fremont (11-5, 4-2) for first place after taking its first two series 2-1 while the Silverwolves swept their first set, then lost two of three to the Darts. (Syracuse is also 4-2 in Region 1 after sweeping Layton this week.)
“We think our first three series are the best three teams in the region, besides us,” Hunter said. “We had to take two of three from these guys; that was the mindset going in and that’s what we produced.”
It looked like it was going to be easy early on as Hunter smashed a two-out double for an RBI in the top of the first inning and Weaver, the hitter, chased him home with a double for a 2-0 Davis lead.
“The first hit was just to make some fireworks. We score in the first inning and it’s over with our guy on the mound,” Hunter said. “I knew I had to put something in play; I found the barrel, hit it down the line and kickstarted everything.”
Weaver helped his cause with another RBI double in the third inning and Hunter also got his second two-bagger in the fifth as Davis led 5-0.
“I’d seen (Fremont pitcher Kobe Nance) twice already; he had a pretty good curveball, so I looked to jump on him early if he left a fastball over the plate and that’s what he did, and I put a good swing on it,” Hunter said.
Home runs by Carter Garrett and Wally Grant in the sixth inning mounted the Davis lead to 8-0.
“Maybe we thought we had it a little bit,” Hunter said. “But especially these guys, they don’t go away. I told my guys it’s not over, we still need six more outs, and that’s exactly what happened. They came back, pushed us to the edge.”
Fremont’s comeback started with a four-run sixth, keyed by a two-run double by Tony Marziale and singles from Garet Jones and Karston Jamison.
Godfrey replaced Weaver with Spencer Cannon in the seventh, but he lasted only three batters before Christensen came on to close.
“Bases loaded, that’s baseball. There’s nothing that comes close to that feeling; it’s crazy,” Hunter said. “It’s a roller coaster ride. You get hard situations and two minutes later, you’re on top of the world.”
The top of the Davis order scored seven of the eight runs and had seven of the eight RBIs.
“We’ve got our horses and we have to run with them. The stats show we’re a team and do everything together, but it comes down to our top five guys hitting, and when we do, we win games,” Hunter said.
There’s still a lot of baseball to be played, but Hunter likes where the Darts are at this point in the season.
“We took this game as whoever wins is in the driver’s seat,” he said. “We still have to win games, but we had to do today what we hadn’t done this whole series, and that’s score runs. That’s what we came out and did.”