It was satisfying revenge for Spanish Fork, which had narrowly lost 6-5 to Maple Mountain at home on Friday. Tuesday’s loss was the first region loss of the year for the Golden Eagles.“I was super proud of how our guys responded,” said Spanish Fork head coach Hadley Thorpe. “We challenged them last week, that this is going to be a teetering point for our season, if we’re gonna go one way or another.

We responded with a really good response against one of the best teams in the state.”Kayden Lambson started on the mound for Spanish Fork, and he delivered. Through the first four innings, he and the Dons’ defense held Maple Mountain scoreless and gave up only a single base hit. Lambson finished the game with five strikeouts through five innings pitched.

“I would agree our defense is definitely a strength,” Lambson said. “We make the routine plays, and we make the hard plays too. So I think our defense is definitely a strength to our team.”Meanwhile, Maple Mountain was struggling hard on the mound.

The Golden Eagles quickly allowed Spanish Fork to load the bases in the first inning, and the Dons scored a run off a walk. They survived by allowing only a single run through the first three innings, but it all went south in the fourth. Spanish Fork got its first two hitters on base, and Boston Duvall hit them both home for the 3-0 lead.

That snowballed into a significant offensive stand for the Dons, and they rallied for eight total runs in the fourth inning. The pitching woes for Maple Mountain reached their peak in the fourth after Spanish Fork had three consecutive HBPs, two of which scored runs. “Our biggest thing was just sticking to our approach throughout the game,” Thorpe said.

“When we stick to our approach, we feel like we have a pretty good game plan and a really potent offense, so if we stick to our game plan throughout it just makes our job easy to put runs up through the inning. “Our goal is to score every inning, so just being patient.”Duvall led offensively with two base hits which brought home four total runs. Maple Mountain managed to narrowly stay out of the mercy-rule range by pulling in two runs each in the fifth and sixth innings, but it was far too late to make any run against the rolling Dons.Spanish Fork continued to pile on the runs, scoring four in the sixth and four in the seventh.

The win improves the Dons’ season record to 16-3. Spanish Fork is hoping to make another bid at a state championship after having a Cinderella run to the crown last year as a 20 seed. But this year, as the defending state champions, it has more eyes on it from opponents.

“The biggest thing is we get everyone’s best shot,” Thorpe said. “I feel like last year it was easy to overlook us as the 20 seed in the state tournament, and we don’t get that this year, we get everyone’s best shot, which is the way we like it.”