Golf takes first at Oquirrh Hills; Softball picks up wins in St. George
Mar 21, 2024 10:51AM ● By Liisa London Mecham
The Morgan High girls golf team won the Region 13 tournament at Oquirrh Hills Golf Course Monday, March 18 by nine strokes over Union. Left to Right: Camden Smith, Larissa Thomas, Kaya Martinez, Jane Poll, Kinley Pitcher, Kayla Gale, Kenadee Benson, and Ashlyn Noss. Photo courtesy of MHS Golf
Girls Golf
Three tournaments into the season, the Morgan golf team is playing well and continues to improve. With a win Monday at Oquirrh Hills in Tooele against Region 13 competition, the Trojans are continuing on their path that culminated with a State Championship last year. Morgan’s path to a repeat title doesn’t appear to be without challenges though. In their opening two tournaments, the Union Cougars showed that they are going to provide competition to the Trojans in Region 13 and possibly state. Playing on their home (Roosevelt) and home-away-from-home (Vernal) courses, the Cougars earned the first-place spot in the two opening events of the season while Morgan placed second.
“Roosevelt and Vernal were tough, cold, and windy,” Assistant Coach Kacey DeMond said. “They obviously had the home course advantage, and we just haven’t had a lot of practice time on the grass coming out of winter. This really affects the short game.”
Monday, March 18, the team showed their skills as they took top honors at Oquirrh Hills. Morgan led the team scoring with a 378, topping second-place Union by nine strokes (397) and third-place Grantsville by 33 (411).
Individually, Kenadee Benson took second place shooting an 89, just one shot over the first-place finisher from Union. Jane Poll tied for third with a 90 while Ashlyn Noss finished sixth at 98. Tying for ninth, Camden Smith rounded out Morgan's top-10 placers. Also representing the Trojans were Kaya Martinez (109), Kayla Gale (113), Kinley Pitcher (118), and Larissa Thomas (137).
wSoftball
After an opening 19-8 win against Payson and a weather-canceled game against Hunter High, the Trojans traveled to sunny St. George for the March Warm-Up Classic Tournament only to be rained out after Day 1 of play. On their first day of play, Morgan had their bats swinging and finished with a 3-0 record, out-scoring their opponents 33-8.
They opened with a 14-0 victory over Bear Lake (ID). In the game, Eva Birkeland recorded seven strikeouts, earned the win as pitcher, and slugged a home run. Callie Averett, Joesi Kelly, and Kaiya Peterson each recorded two RBIs while Birkeland, Kodi Remund, and Stacey George had one RBI.
Next, Morgan faced Richfield, a 3A team whom they could match up against at state, and earned a 12-2 victory. After two innings the score was tied 0-0 before the Trojans got a run in the third inning to get things started. In the fourth and fifth innings, Morgan added two runs per inning to lead 5-2 going into the sixth. In the sixth, Morgan more than doubled the score with strong hitting to win 12-2 over the Wildcats.
Averett recorded the pitcher and hit a triple with two RBIs. Both Remund and Peterson tallied doubles against Richfield and added two RBIs each. Lexi Hardman contributed two RBIs while Kelly, George, and Summer Bangerter each recorded an RBI.
In their final game of the evening, the Trojans came away with a 7-6 win over Highland, Idaho. After opening with a 2-0 lead in the first inning, Morgan was held scoreless in the second to enter the third up 2-1. The bats got busy in the fourth and drove in four runs to give the Trojans a 6-1 lead. After Morgan failed to score in the fourth and fifth innings and Highland added two in the fourth and three in the fifth, the score was tied after five!
In the sixth inning, Morgan scored the go-ahead run and held on to win 7-6 in what became their final game of the tournament.
Birkeland claimed the win as pitcher, adding seven more strikeouts and two RBIs for the game. Peterson hit two doubles and Averett added another double and a RBI. Kelly recorded a home run and two RBIs.
The Trojans played Wednesday at home against Logan and traveled to Kamas for their first region game Thursday against South Summit before traveling to Roosevelt to take on Union Friday, March 22 in another Region 13 game. Morgan will host Cyprus at 3:30 on Monday, March 25, and travel to Ogden, Tuesday, March 26. Their next home game will be Thursday, March 28 at 3:30 against Gunnison Valley. λ
