Utah Power 25 Rankings: Week 9 (May 2-7)

Week 9 of the Utah HS baseball season finally has some movement as Bingham made a jump from #8 to the 5th slot as they swept Top 25 West Jordan and knocked them out of the rankings with a 3 game sweep at the hands of the Miners. 

Riverton vs Bingham for the Region 3 Title

 This week's marquee matchup between Riverton and Bingham, will decide the 6A Region 3 regular season champion! Bingham, who has a one game lead, must win 2 of the 3 games to avoid Riverton from a share of the Region 3 title. If Riverton takes 2 of 3, they share the league title and with a sweep, will overtake the Miners. This is classic HS baseball in any scenario. With sophomore Zach Edwards on the shelf with a shoulder injury and out for the season, the Silverwolves have remained in striking distance with their bats during the region schedule. Bingham will throw super sophomore Maddax Peck-RHP in Monday’s game one tilt, and he’s been throwing very well of late. Peck will set the tone on how this series will go from the mound, along with Peck’s older brother Maxton, his catcher, who is having a strong year with the bat, along with 3B-Jonny Hatch, a Salt Lake CC commit, as both hit squarely in the heart of the Miners lineup. 

American Fork vs Pleasant Grove for the Region 4 Title

The other big matchup, that mirrors the Bingham/Riverton 3 game series, is the same set of circumstances with the impending 3 game set between cross town powerhouses, Pleasant Grove matching up with region leader American Fork. The Caveman hold a one game lead on the Vikings and the exact same scenario will play out, if there will be a share of the Region 4 title or someone takes control of the series and walks away with the title outright. Not only is winning the region 3 and 4 titles with these 4 behemoths important, but it ensures a higher seed and lesser opponent when pairings for the 6A state tournament seedlings are released the following week. 

Pleasant Grove will counter in game 3 on Wednesday with staff ace Brayden Marx-RHP to settle the battle at the end, if a share or outright title is in question. Marx the owner of a high 80’s to low 90’s FB, coupled with the state 2nd best CB spin rate and the CB can be virtually unhittable if he’s on his “A” game. Marx outside of a couple so-so games of late, has been throwing the baseball in a manner that his talent dictates, since he got things squared away in St. George earlier in the year. Marx has captured a PBR Pitcher of the Week award a few weeks back and he will have to do it, against one of the handful of toughest hurtling lineups in the state vs TCU commits, Ryder Robinson-2B, Fisher Ingersoll-SS, Kaden Carpenter-OF a Utah commit and 3B-Easton Jones a BYU commit. Also having strong years are sophomores, Davis Andrews-1B/LF and Dax Watts-1B, who are both hitting at or over .400. Pleasant Grove also has some star power in their lineup, as sophomore catcher, Tua Wolfgramm at .375 and OF-Ryker Schow a BYU commit and USU-Eastern commit Kaden Davis-3B is having a huge year with the bat, as he’s hitting .522 with 10 2B’s and 6 HR’s. 

I will be at the Wednesday game to see Marx go up against the vaunted college type lineup the Caveman possesses. 

American Fork the defending 6A champs are clicking on all cylinders, and despite a one run loss last week to Skyridge, the Caveman have won 10 of their past 11 games and are peaking at the right time, after having some misfires early in the season. This will be a doozy of a matchup as well as the series mentioned above. 

Fremont vs Syracuse

This matchup is solely for intrigue as Fremont has the 6A Region 1 Championship already wrapped up and is undefeated at 15-0 in Region 1 play, but after losing the opening game of the season 5-3 at the hands of the Skyridge Falcons, the Silverwolves haven’t lost since. This 3 game set, will be to see if the Silverwolves can extend their 21 game winning streak and run the table to close out the season with 24 consecutive victories! With a potent lineup that features junior Calvin Morrow-OF and his .430 BA to go along with his 46 RBI’s, which is one off the state lead of 47, which is where potential 3A Player of the Year and sophomore catcher Cameron Calvez currently sits. Morrow is a leading contender for 6A Player of the Year honors. There are other more famous names in the hunt, but his overall numbers across the board to go along with his 21 extra base hits that break down into 14 2B’s, 2 3B’s and 5 HR’s are unmatched at the 6A level right now. 

Also swinging a hot bat and firing on all cylinders from the mound is senior Bridger Clontz, who from the plate is hitting .465 with 24 RBI and 14 extra base hits. On the mound of late, Clontz has been punching out 12-15 hitters a game for the last 3-4 starts and his numbers are 1st Team All-State caliber. Clontz has a 6-0 record to go along with a sparkling 1.20 ERA, in 41 IP, he’s given up only 25 hits, 11 free passes and struck out 71 batters! Clontz and Gavin Douglas the seniors and sophomore lefty Landon Salvesen have put up ERA’s of 1.20, 1.94 and 3.07, while combining to walk 44 hitters, which is a bit high, but at the other end of the spectrum, the 3 man rotation has struck out a combined 159 hitters in a total of 106.2 inns pitched. Sophomore SS-Logan Penland is the glue defensively as he is hitting .342 with 8 errors. Now 8 errors are a bit high, but it is the highest total on a team that is fielding at a .943 clip. That is really good in this scouts opinion, as fields in northern Utah are not the manicured college level putting greens of southern Utah, that feature baseball weather and better funding for their fields. 

Note: I will be at Tuesday’s game, starting at 3:30 at Fremont. 

Power 25 - Week 9

Next week's installment of the PBR Utah Power 25 Rankings, will be the final poll until all the State Championships are settled at the end of the month. There should be a much different look to this poll, when the dust settles and the hardware is passed out…Enjoy!

• Up Next: 3 game series this week with Davis

• Up Next: Waiting on 5A Postseason Pairings…

• Up Next: First round bye in the playoffs. Awaiting opponent as the #1 seed in the 4A State tournament, at Dixie State’s Bruce Hurst Field, as they are the Region 10 Champion. 

• Up Next: Big 3 game series vs Bingham. Bingham has a one game lead for the Region 3 Title!!

• Up Next: Big 3 game series vs Bingham. Bingham has a one game lead for the Region 3 Title!!

• Up Next: Waiting on 5A Postseason Pairings…

• Up Next: First round bye in the playoffs. Awaiting opponent as the 2 seed in the 4A State tournament at Dixie State’s Bruce Hurst Field.  

• Up Next: Waiting on 5A Postseason Pairings…

• Middle INF combo of TCU commits, Fisher Ingersoll and Ryder Robinson, along with BYU commit, 3B Easton Jones have combined for 20 HR’s!

• Up Next: Crucial 3 game series with Pleasant Grove, as the Caveman hold a one game lead for the Region 4 title. If American Fork wins 2 of 3, they are the outright champs, if they lose 2 of 3, they share the Region 4 title. Pleasant Grove must sweep, to win outright. 

• Up Next: 3 game series this week vs Corner Canyon

• Up Next: Crucial 3 game series with the Caveman! The Vikings are one game behind the Caveman in Region 4. The Vikings must win 2 of 3, to share the title, and to win the Region 4 title, they must sweep all 3.

• Up Next: Waiting on 5A Postseason Pairings… 

• Up Next: Have a bye week, as they await their opponent as the 3 seed in the 4A state tournament at Dixie State’s Bruce Hurst Field. 

• Up Next: 3 game series this week vs Roy to close out the regular season

• Up Next: Finish regular season play with a 3 game series vs #6 Park City

• Up Next: Finish the regular season with a 3 game series vs #11 Orem

• Up Next: Host Logan in the Super Regionals 2 out of to advance to Dixie State’s Bruce Hurst Field, the following week 

• Up Next: 3 game series this week with hapless East

• Up Next: Hosts Skyview in the 2 out of 3 Super Regionals this coming week

• Up Next: 3 game series this week vs local rival Viewmont

• Up Next: Quarterfinal matchup with Carbon on 5/12 at Utah Valley U

• Up Next: 3 game series this week vs Brighton

• Up Next: 2 game region series vs Hillcrest on Mon, Wed and sandwiched in on Tuesday is a non region matchu at home vs Farmington. 

• Up Next: Face Manti in a do or die game on Thursday at Spanish Fork HS

• Up Next: Continue with a do or die game at Spanish Fork in the 3A Tournament vs Union at 11am on Thursday. 

• Canyon View features 2024 Cameron Calvez - C,  who leads the state with 47 RBI’s. Sports a 464 Avg, 18 2B’s, 2 3B’s and 8 HR! Leads the state with 28 extra base hits. Should be the hands down winner of the 3A Player of the Year award!

RELATED NEWS