2023 Father/Son Zona
Utah Yutes 12, Underhill 4
Submitted by Randy Miles, manager
The Utah Yutes finally won the World Series Father/Son ZONA division championship after making it to the championship game for the fifth time. We lost some heartbreakers in the past, three times by one run. This time we had some luck on our side, and were very fortunate that we even made the championship game.
Underhill beat us in pool play 5-4 with a walk-off hit in the bottom of the ninth, securing them a first-round bye. So, we had to beat a very good Aussie team 6-4 in the first round of the playoffs. They really surprised us how good they were, as it was a nail-biter. The second-round playoff game was versus the Utah Aggies, and they ran us off the field and beat us 19-4. We could not match their hitting and speed and thought our tourney was over, but … they could not play in the championship game for various reasons and we graciously agreed to take their spot in the finals.
In the Championship game, we jumped on Underhill with four runs in the first off the Dad pitcher. They battled back off our Kid pitcher, Zak Privett, with three runs in the second. We scored three more runs off their Dad pitcher in the fourth.
A game-changing play happened in the sixth with us leading 7-4. They had a runner on first and blasted a ball over our left fielder’s head, but a perfect relay 7-6-2 got the runner at home and ended their rally. Momentum shifted back to us and we were able to score five runs off a very good kid pitcher in the seventh to put the game out of reach.
Our Dad pitcher, Nate Jack, was our Ace and MVP. We threw our kid pitchers four innings in the beginning of each game, then turned the ball over to Nate for the final five. We played seven games in four days and he pitched 32 innings for us.
In the Championship game, team manager Randy Miles was 4-5, Tom Campos was 2-5, and Joey Robinson was 2-4. Nate Jack threw five innings, gave up one run, and logged three K’s. Our Tourney Batting Leader was Zak Privett, who was 15-28 for a .535 average.