THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
Prep softball: Bear River rallies to second straight title
By Dan Ryan
Special To The Tribune
Spanish Fork>> Had the long afternoon gotten even longer by Uintah forcing an additional game, Bear River coach Calvin Bingham would have felt confident that his team could recover from an emotional first-game loss.
"I just wouldn't have wanted to try," Bingham said.
No need. With a pair of extra-inning rallies and Kim Knudsen's 10th inning single, the Bears posted their second consecutive Class 3A softball championship after an 11-10 instant classic Saturday.
After losing a 5-2 seventh inning lead when Uintah's AJ Bowthorpe stroked a three-run monster to left, Bear River came back from an 8-5 defecit in the eighth and 10-8 in the 10th.
"We really battled and I'm proud of that," Bingham said. "Definitely a little more dramatic than I wanted, but it's the most exciting championship game I've ever seen."
After Chenel Pace's two-run double gave Uintah a 10-8 lead, Bear River answered with RBI's from Kylee Fronk and Madison Jensen before Knudsen's single brought in Fronk for the game-winner. Bingham appreciated that the junior delivered the game-winner.
"Kim's just had a fabulus year." Bingham said. "This is probably her 22nd game with a base hit. If we could get a runner to third , I knew we were going to win the game with Kim up because she's been such a clutch hitter."
In the eighth, an error and a two-run Madison Robb double put Uintah ahead by three, but Bear River extended the game by capitalizing on infield miscues for two of its three runs.
Before that, Bear River got solo home runs from sophomore Kelli Smart, batting from the seventh spot in the lineup, in the second and fifth.
"She's not in the seventh spot because she can't hit," Bingham said. "We just have hitters all the way through."
Nicole Johnson delivered three two-out RBI's for Bear River, the first two on an opening-inning double and another in the fourth when she swung on a 3-0 pitch and produced a seeing-eye single that made it 4-2.
"I told her to take that pitch," Bingham said. "It was on of those, 'No no,no ... Nice job' things."
The Bear River defense got out of scoring jams in the fourth and sixth.
