3A Baseball Recap 2026
3A Baseball 2026 has come and gone. A regular season that was up and down for most teams and a dramatic start to the 3A playoffs seeing a variety of big time upsets! Let’s run it back.
Regular Season
Although it wasn’t always clear cut, the 3 region champs (Grantsville, Union, Canyon View) established themselves as true contenders and the top dogs by the end of the year.
The Grantsville Cowboys stormed through region 12 only losing once and finishing with a 25-6 record on the year. The perfect lead off man Jordan Fawson (Sr.) EXCELLED in his role. Leading the entire state of Utah in stolen bases (42) and leading the Cowboys with a .461 BA by a wide margin, Fawson was efficient at the dish and stellar in the outfield using his speed to make plays only he could make! The Cowboys then loaded up the heavy hitters in the 2,3 and 4 slots with seniors Riley Williams, Payton Cummings and Jaxxon Jensen all hitting above the .300 mark and combining for 11 bombs and 85 runs batted in. The Cowboys had a variety of arms dealing well for them throughout the year, but it was again Jordan Fawson leading the way with a perfect 7-0 record and 57 K’s.
The Union Cougars came into the season as our pre season #1 team and championship favorite. The Cougars knew the talent they had themselves and loaded up an absolute GAUNTLET of a schedule before region play. Playing the likes of Lone Peak, Lehi, Corner Canyon, West Jordan, Desert Hills, who were all at the top of their respective classifications. This paid dividends as the Cougars had no issue getting through as region champs finishing with a 7-1 record. 4 Cougars finished the year with a .400 or above batting average - Tyson Marx (Sr.), Davin Brotherson (Sr.) , Gannon Labrum (Sr.), Dylan Watahomigie (Jr.) - making it easy for Union to run up the scoreboard all year long averaging 8.2 runs per game. Looking on the other side of the ball it is scary for the rest of 3A as Unions Ace Ryan Oakey and #2 pitcher Dylan Watahomigie are both juniors and will be returning on the bump for the 2027 season. Oakey delivered 60+ strong innings for the Cougars and led all of 3A with 89 strikeouts establishing himself as a top dawg. Dylan himself contributed mightily on the rubber putting together a 6-1 record and a 2.27 ERA.
State Tournament
The top half of this years bracket was pretty chalk and went about as expected. The Manti Templars, Canyon View Falcons, and Union Cougars were the last 3 standing with the Cougars making it out unbeaten. It was the bottom half of the bracket where things went haywire. In round 1 (10) Emery sent (7) North Sanpete packing and (11) Carbon took care of (6) Morgan in a 2 game sweep. An even bigger upset was the 14 seed Logan Grizzlies beating out the 3 seed Delta Rabbits winning back to back in games 2 and 3. Carbon and Logan weren’t done yet as they also ended up in the top 3 of the lower bracket with the Dinos putting up 26 runs!?!? against the Grizzlies in an elimination game. Carbon didn’t go down without a fight losing both games to the bracket champion Grantsville Cowboys, but doing so in 2 competitive games.
State Championship
All this setting up a highly anticipated matchup between the 1 seed battle tested Union Cougars and the regular season team that was near unbeatable 2 seed Grantsville Cowboys.
Game 1 was absolute cinema seeing multiple lead changes in a back and forth game. The deciding factor in this game was Union star player Gannon Labrum blasting a 2 run bomb, scoring 3 times for the Cougars, tallying 3 RBI’s and coming in for the save to seal the deal.
Game 2 was no different, a closely contested battle all the way through…. until the 7th inning. Union saw themselves up 2-0 going into the 7th looking for an additional insurance run to close out the game. Well they got that run plus an additional 11. Grantsville couldn’t get outs for the life of them as the Cougars saw 5 different pitchers all in the 7th inning. The Cougars finished out this game winning 14-0, but this game was much closer than the scoreboard would say as the Cowboys battled hard, but just came up short. Without a doubt the MVP of this game was Ryan Oakey. Ryan delivered a shutout complete game only allowing 3 hits and tallying up 12 K’s. The junior made sure the wrapped up their storybook season in style and didn’t allow for a game 3, sending the UHSAA championship trophy back to Roosevelt for the second time in 3 years.
Season Standouts
Other notable performances for the season were Manti’s duo of Zach Blackham and Kellen Lund leading 3A with 6HR’s each. Meanwhile teammate Spencer Robbins got busy on the bases leading all of 3A with a ridiculous .495 batting average.
North Sanpete’s duo of Hudson Smith and Bryce Swapp were stellar on the rubber and at the plate coming in at 2 and 3 in 3A in strikeouts while both surpassing the .333 BA mark. Smith also tallied 6 bombs good enough to tie the 3A lead.
Easton Venz led the charge for the Morgan Trojans during a great regular season batting .414 with 35 RBI’s. The Trojans also saw great production from Karson Black on both sides in his Sophomore campaign.
Zach Maine was the best player for the defending champion Canyon View Falcons racking up 72 punchouts while also leading the team with a .389 BA.
Logan Bennett was a force at the plate for the Dino’s stuffing the statsheet going yard 5 times, driving in 30 runs and hitting .369.
Final Thoughts
3A will be losing a lot of talent this year with graduated seniors while seeing many talented underclassmen return to their programs. This will open up the door for new contenders while also the top teams will remain close to the top.