4A Baseball Recap 2026
4A had studs scattered all over the state from Cache Valley down to St. George and in between. Let’s dive into it.
Regular Season
It didn’t take long for the Snow Canyon Warriors to establish themselves as top dawgs in 4A. Before region play even began the Warriorspicked up wins against top notch teams namely American Fork (6A state champs) Jordan, Lehi, Provo and Ridgeline. With an impressive resume already built up the Warriors didn’t stop there. Region 9 was undoubtedly the toughest region in 4A, but Snow had no issues finishing as region champs with a stout 10-2 record. There have been many loaded Snow Canyon rosters in recent memory, but this one has an argument at being the best. There were no holes in this roster. Trey Vaughn has an argument as the best hitter in the entire state of Utah. Leading the state with 60 RBI’s with the next in line coming in at 50. Trey was also near the top of the state with a .505 BA and nuking 10 bombs on the year. You want a kid who can do it all at the plate? You’re not going to find one better than Vaughn, he did it all. Oh yeah and he was a stud out in right field as well. Vaughn wasn’t the only one on the team with an absurd .505 BA as his teammate Kade Kelsch also came in at that number. The heavy hitter hit 8 of his own out of the park and cashed in 45 RBI’s himself. Kelsch was everything you want in a catcher, heavy hitter, high energy team player and a brick wall behind the plate. These 2 weren’t the only heavy hitters on the squad… Talan Hansen comes in with 10 bombs 40 RBI’s. Bridger Larsen drops 6 bombs and 38 RBI’s. PJ Hancock hits 5 of his own bombs and brought home 42 runners. And you also can’t go without mentioning B-Mug and J-Mug, Braden and Jagger Mugavero who both hit over .350 at the plate while their defensive impact simply can’t be measured by statistics. To finish the year at 28-6 you don’t only do it at the plate, but must have good pitching. Trent Chris, Cael Esplin and Zac Beck led the Warriors pitching rotation to win after win.
The defending champion Crimson Cliffs Mustangs finished 2nd in region 9 with an impressive 8-4 record. Tyler Ransom was bringing the heat all year long with 65 punchouts and a 2.20 ERA. Ransom also was an effective hitter slashing at .377. Teammate Austin Smith was spectacular for the Mustangs hitting at .382 driving in 32 runs. These 2 with the help of Sam Chappell, Cutter Christensen, Ricardo Navarro, Madden Smith, and Jack Boyer the Mustangs finished up another great year with 20 wins.
We stay in region 9 with the Desert Hills Thunder who seemed to fly under the radar the majority of the regular season. Harmon Skeen surely didn’t. The Air Force commit hit bomb after bomb after bomb and just when you thought he was done another one would come. SKEEN HIT 16 DINGERS!! INSANITY! Not only that he also led the team with a .451 batting average and took home the Desert News Mr. Baseball award. Skeen graduated this year but the Thunder have absolutely found another prodigy with Asher Williams. Asher hit .416 at the dish 7 Home runs, 31 RBI’s as a FRESHMAN!? Asher is a can’t miss prospect who is going to dominate the scene for the next 3 years and he can do so with running mate Cohen Fuller who was also a big time contributor for the Thunder also as a freshman!
The Timpanogos Timberwolves had a great regular season themselves and were able to secure a region title at the end of the year. Cooper Hawkes (Sr.) was the star of the show as a top hitter in the state leading all of Utah with a 1.140 slugging percentage. 8 HR’s, 9 TRIPLES!!!, 15 doubles, 49 hits, and 50 RBI’s all on a .527 BA. Top Tier player. The T-Wolves also had 2 other studs hit .400 and up from the plate with Jace Hunter and Corbin Hardy. Canyon Clegg hit a great .350 from the plate, but did even more damage on the rubber going 60+ innings with 54 K’s and an awesome 2.55 ERA.
Region 11 saw both the Mountain Crest Mustangs and Bear River Bears have a look at a region crown early, but it was ultimately the Ridgeline Riverhawks who came up on top. Easton Hammond (Sr.) has been a beast for Riverhawk Football and will play at the next level in Logan. But man did he have a great year in baseball. A ridiculous .506 from the plate was better than you could ask for for a kid who doesn’t even specialize in the sport. Ripken Jensen (Sr.) led the team in RBI’s as well as dealing on the mound with a 2.10 ERA. Lincoln Jackson also helped out with a great end to his high school career leading the team in strikeouts and posting a 2.41 ERA himself.
State Tournament
Only minor madness to start out the bracket notably Timpanogos getting sent home early. Eventually we were left with the 3 top dogs from region 9. Crimson Cliffs and Desert Hills battled it out multiple times throughout the tournament, but it was the Thunder who advanced to the state title game for a date with region foe Snow Canyon.
State Championship
Game 1 looked to be all Warriors as they jumped out to a 9-1 lead early on. But after a couple different rallies by the Thunder, they were able to steal game 1! Cohen Fuller, Briggs Fillmore, and Asher Williams all went deep and combined for 7 RBI’s to help pull off the comeback and win the game despite allowing 11 runs.
Game 2 was a back and forth affair that saw the game all knotted up at 4 after 5 innings of play. Snow Canyon had their backs against the wall and were looking for 1 run to take the lead. How about 14? How does that sound? Absolute cinema as Bridger Larsen ERUPTS with a 4-5 game, a double, a dinger and 7 Runs Batted In… HAVE. A. GAME! The Warriors win this one 18-4 to force a game 3 in one that was much closer than it looks.
Game 3 was ALL WARRIORS. Snow Canyon put up 6 runs in the top of the 1st putting the game away before it could even get started. Kade Kelsch hits a perfect 5-5 from the plate, Trey Vaughn goes BAZERK going 3-4 with 6 RBIs and 2 Nukes. Talan Hansen joins the bomb parade, Bridger Larsen stays scorching hot smacking 2 more dingers on the day hitting 3-4 with 4 RBI’s. HAVE. A. GAME! (x2) The Warriors take this one handily 15-5 and are STATE CHAMPIONS!
This marks the sixth consecutive state championship appearance for Snow Canyon and their 3rd victory in that stretch. Reed Secrist has built a dynasty down there for the Warriors with his current tally at 426 wins. This Snow Canyon team was one the very best in the entire state despite being 4A. They proved that all year long. It’s even more impressive that they pulled it out after losing stud player and CSI commit Logan Ross to injury midway through the year.
Season Standouts
Chase Ford out of Orem was near the top of every hitting category in 4A with a .495 BA, 9 HR, 41 RBI. Ford did it all even tossing 55 K’s for the Tigers.
Stephen Starnes was an ace through and through for the Bear River Bears fanning 83 batters with 9 wins while also slashing .390 at the plate.
Jackson Pearce and Ethan Nielsen were senior leaders for Mountain Crest both hitting over .400 for the competitive group out of Hyrum. Ethan Christensen had a stellar junior season posting a 1.79 ERA with 49 K’s.
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.
Alex Brannigan was a strikeout machine pitcher for the Park City Miners with 79 K’s on only 198 batters faced.
Dawson Moore is one of the best prospects in the class of 2028 and he showed just that. He led all of 4A with a .557 BA and was a heavy hitter as well with 6 bombs and 32 RBI’s. Another star sophomore for Provo was Taven Lancaster who hit .387 with 5 long balls. Pitching for the Bulldogs was headlined by 3 sport star Gehrig Orchard (Sr.) who went a perfect 8-0 and Will Gulbrandsen (Sr.) who chucked 72 K’s and only 25 BB’s despite throwing 61 innings.
Final Thoughts
4A had many good competitive teams, even the middle of the pack teams were solid and good enough to pick up quality wins. But the main headline was Snow Canyon was just in a league of their own this year. They’ll be back and re load as they have shown over the last 6 years, but they’re losing a lot of star seniors and we saw the underclassmen shine all over the state leaving the 2027 title open for more than just the Warriors taking.