4A Baseball: Snow Canyon eliminates Timpanogos from state tournament (2024)

WEST JORDAN — Timpanogos could never figure out the mystery that was Snow Canyon’s pitching, and the T-Wolves season is over.

Timpanogos, the No. 3 seed in the 4A baseball tournament, lost twice to the second-seeded Warriors during bracket play and didn’t score a run in 14 innings. Snow Canyon won 3-0 on Tuesday and eliminated the T-Wolves with a 2-0 victory on Wednesday.

“We just had too many spots in the lineup where we just weren’t seeing it,” Timpanogos coach Kim Nelson said. “We didn’t have many good at-bats when we needed them.”

Three Timpanogos pitchers — Carter Hall, Tyten Day and Canyon Clegg — limited the Warriors to just five hits in Wednesday’s game.

“They were amazing to be able to hold a team like Snow Canyon to two runs,” Nelson said. “A couple of them were just scratch hits over the infield. Our pitchers were great but we just needed to score more runs.”

The T-Wolves, which got runners on base in five of the seven innings, didn’t advance anyone past second base. Snow Canyon starter Jackson Kirby struck out nine and scattered five singles in earning the compete-game victory to send his team into the 4A championship series on Friday.

Kayden Harding and Brighton Tate singled in the first to get two runners on but Kirby struck out a pair of hitters to end the inning. In the fifth, a single from Cache McCann and a Snow Canyon error got two runners on with one out, But Luke Livingston and Tate both flied out to end that threat.

The T-Wolves went down in order in the seventh.

Snow Canyon had all five of its hits in the second inning, pushing across two runs on RBI singles from Andrew Lyon and Makalo Swenson.

That would be all the offense the Warriors needed.

Timpanogos, which won the Class 5A title last season, finished 2024 with a record of 23-8.

Nelson, who has been a head coach at the high school level for 28 seasons, has had amazing success with nine state titles (seven at Timpanogos and two at American Fork). But he’s had to make the “end of season” speech plenty of times.

He doesn’t enjoy it.

“I hate it,” Nelson said. “I hate seeing the tears and the sadness. We’ve got a great group of ten seniors. Most of them will never put on a baseball uniform again, at least in a competitive situation like this. I just appreciate all of their hard work.”

Timpanogos 9, Park City 7

The T-Wolves erupted for eight runs in the third inning to eliminate No. 6 seed Park City in the first action of the day.

The Miners didn’t go down without a fight, though, scoring six runs in the final two innings against Timpanogos relief pitching and loading the bases with two outs in the top of the seventh. Finally, Clegg induced a ground ball out from Park City leadoff hitter Griffen Rogers to end the game.

McCann drove in three runs with a double, Tate plated two with a double and Harding had an RBI single as Timpanogos sent 12 batters to the plate in the third. The big inning turned a 1-1 tied into a 9-1 lead.

“Cache McCann totally just broke that game open for us,” Nelson said. “That was a huge hit.”

Hall went five innings on the mound to get the win for the T-Wolves, giving up one unearned run and allowing only two hits.

“We’re playing two today with a chance to move on,” Nelson said. “We’re at a point where your pitching staff becomes really important. Not just the top two or three guys but going down to five, six and seven, guys who have pitched during the year but probably not that many innings. That’s who you’re really counting on to really help you get to the next day.”

McCann was 3 for 4 at the plate and Collin Morgan was 2 for 3 for Timpanogos.

It was the second victory in the tournament for the T-Wolves over Park City (21-10) after winning 3-2 on Monday.

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