Prep baseball: Penrod’s walk-off HR secures West Field’s series win over Fremont
Longhorns claim second game of newfound rivalry series, as well as a two-game lead in Region 5
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- Wyatt Penrod, center, and West Field celebrate a 9-6 win over Fremont High in extras during a region baseball contest on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, at West Field High School in Taylor.
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- West Field’s Jarett Hill jubilant after a strikeout against Fremont High during a region baseball contest on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, at West Field High School in Taylor.
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- Fremont High’s Calvin Cooper delivers a pitch during a region baseball contest on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, at West Field High School in Taylor.
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- West Field’s Marshal Moon, left of Fremont High’s Bodee Hawkins, busts a move after safely sliding into second base during a region baseball contest on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, at West Field High School in Taylor.
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- Fremont High coach Garrett Clark, left, congratulates Calvin Cooper, right, on an inning well pitched during a region baseball contest on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, at West Field High School in Taylor.
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- West Field’s Luke Penland, right of Fremont’s Ashur Clark, left, knocks one into play during a region baseball contest on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, at West Field High School in Taylor.
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- West Field’s Wyatt Penrod rounds third base after knocking a 3-run walkoff homer to defeat Fremont over the fence during a region baseball contest on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, at West Field High School in Taylor.
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- West Field’s Jarett Hill delivers a pitch against Fremont High during a region baseball contest on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, at West Field High School in Taylor.
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- Fremont High gathers on the mound during a region baseball contest on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, at West Field High School in Taylor.
TAYLOR — West Field junior Wyatt Penrod is playing his favorite brand of baseball: the brotherly kind.
On Wednesday, the first-year Longhorn and California native slammed the door on his team’s series win over Fremont with a three-run, walk-off homer sailing beyond Adam Mikesell and the left-field fence.
West Field rallied from down six runs in the first to force extras, and Penrod’s finishing touch painted quite the picture.
“I was looking to end it,” Penrod said. “I was looking for that pitch, and then I got it. It’s a phenomenal feeling; it’s unreal. And with a rivalry game like that, it’s just times 10, you know?”
This spring marks Penrod’s first true season of high school baseball after arriving back in the States last summer following a stint representing the Dominican Republic. His father previously played baseball at Clearfield.
“They have accepted Wyatt with open arms,” West Field coach Tyler Barfuss said. “The thing I’m impressed with is, when you have a kid move in, he’s going to — as good as he is — take opportunities from some guys, and there’ve been guys who realize he can play and have accepted their roles and bought into those so that he can flourish.”
Penrod is leading the Longhorns (14-4, 10-1 Region 5) at the plate, and his .943 slugging percentage (a stat measuring a batter’s total bases per at-bat) currently ranks No. 7 in Utah and 330th nationally.
Penrod’s fifth homer of the season, marking 25 RBIs (20th in Utah), couldn’t have arrived at a better time.
Longhorns starter Jarett Hill, tallying 10 strikeouts and denying Fremont a single hit after the third, battled eight full frames to get West Field back to the plate after the Longhorns broke through in the fifth inning.
Penrod, Brady Penland and designated hitter Sam Smith cut Fremont’s long-held advantage to a single run in the fifth and, as Fremont (11-7, 8-3) turned to sophomore Payson Malan for the save, Grady Garrett knotted the contest up 6-all through the end of the sixth.
“I didn’t have them prepared today, and so the guys bailed me out,” Barfuss said. “Anytime you give up six runs in the first, that’s a coaching problem, and I’ve got to be better about getting us ready to go. But, you know, the guys picked me up and picked ourselves up, and took care of each other.”
Fremont, which jumped out to a six-run lead on five hits against Hill in the top of the first, never answered beyond its hot start to the Wednesday road game. Silverwolves starter Calvin Cooper soon fell off in the fifth.
Malan kept West Field off the scoreboard in the seventh to help force the extra inning, but a two-runner situation proved too steep.
“I’ve been doing this a long time, and you can’t be too eager with that,” Fremont coach Garrett Clark said of handing the mound over to his green sophomore reliever.
“You have to go through it sometimes to experience it and come out the other end. But if we’re going to go through the pain, we might as well make it count. Our big message is we’ve gotta learn through all these things.”
Ashur Clark led Fremont at the plate, going 2 for 3 with an RBI. Crew Hudman added two RBIs on his 1-of-3 day for the Silverwolves.
Two of Fremont’s errors — one by junior Hunter Maycock in the sixth and one from sophomore Bodee Hawkins in the seventh — contributed to West Field’s late rally.
Penrod led West Field at the plate with five RBIs on two hits. Sam Smith finished 1 of 4 with a run and two RBIs. Penland chipped in another RBI on one hit in four plate appearances.
Entering Friday’s series finale, West Field has a two-game lead in region play with seven games left on the regular-season calendar.
“Anytime we can play with house money, we like our chances because then we can really go have fun and be aggressive,” Barfuss said. “I don’t know that we’ve played as aggressively as we would’ve liked these last two games and found a way to win. Going into Friday, we’re going to let it hang loose and just go get it done.”
Fremont and West Field close the rivalry series at 3:30 p.m. Friday in Plain City.
LAYTON 12, SYRACUSE 0
SYRACUSE — First-place Layton broke open a 5-0 game with a seven-run sixth for a six-inning shutout of Syracuse.
Hudson Rigby allowed four hits while striking out three and walking one for Layton (14-5, 7-1 Region 1) and Kaleb Hall pitched a 1-2-3 sixth. Will Hoffman hit a solo homer. Nik Bielaczyc tripled, drove in two and scored two runs. Jowell Dasni had two RBIs and Paul York hit a double.
Colsten Thomas hit a triple for Syracuse (1-17, 0-5). Daxton Davis and Connor Wilcox each doubled.
ROY 10, NORTHRIDGE 7
ROY — Roy plated seven runs in the first inning and held on for a second consecutive win over Northridge.
Jace Barela hit 3 for 4 with two doubles and two RBIs to lead Roy (8-13, 4-10 Region 5). Logan Vorwaller hit 2 for 4 with a double and two runs scored. Cache Summers got the win, allowing six earned runs in five innings, and Parker Skidmore closed with two perfect innings of relief, striking out one.
Eli Mitchell led Northridge (5-13, 4-7) by batting 2 for 4 with two RBIs. Jax Skola, Isaac Anderson and Mick Whitaker each had two hits and one double.
Brett Hein contributed to score reports.
Connect with prep sports reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.net, X @ctbecker and Instagram @standardexaminersports.
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