6A Baseball Recap 2026
6A baseball is the best the state of Utah has to offer. Competitive teams clashing it out year in and year out. We saw lots of familiar faces at the top this year with a lot of different championship contenders on any given night.
Regular Season
It is no slide to region 1, but this year was really between regions 2 and 3. And the winners of those being the defending champions and preseason championship favorites The American Fork Cavemen winning region 3 and the Mountain Ridge Sentinels taking the region 2 crown.
The Cavemen have truly built a dynasty at the highest level thanks to some great talent, but also great coaching from Jarod Ingersoll and his staff. A great culture that has led to hundreds of wins and multiple state championships. Coming fresh off one of those championships the Cavemen lost some great players in CJ Mascaro, Crew Ingersoll and Cooper Jones. However the Cavemen re loaded with many returning contributors like Cache Poulsen, Bode Gaggero, Kenny Johnson, Talon Willardson and River Litke. This year the Cavemen didn’t have stat stuffing production from one particular player at the plate, but they got the job done. The team combined for 25 Home runs with Bode Gaggero and Talon Willardson hitting 6 a piece. No Caveman with 50 at bats cracked the .400 mark, but they did have many hitting in the .300 range alongside Gaggero and Willardson are Cache Poulsen, Kenny Johnson, Gavin Robinson and River Litke. The Cavemens pitching rotation was spectacular. Kenny Johnson has been doing it for multiple years for the Cavemen and he put out another incredible year. A perfect 8-0 record with a silly 1.35 ERA in the toughest region in the state of Utah. Johnson wasn’t the only great pitcher for AF as they had 3 other main contributors in Talon Willardson, Ty Holmstead and Cruz Adams all with winning records and combining for 143 punch outs.
Mountain Ridge is newer on the scene, but have really built some consistency as a newer school with this being their 4th year in a row with at least 20 wins! The Sentinels saw production from many different guys. Cooper Goff is one of the best if not the best prospect in all of Utah. The TCU commit did not disappoint. Hitting .460 at the plate with 7 bombs and 12 doubles that helped him tally 36 RBI’s. Teammate Brody Garrard led all of 6A with 41 runs batted in while he also hit a great .394 at the dish. Colby Claassen was brilliant for Mountain Ridge on the bump leading all of 6A with a 1.02 ERA and put together a 9-1 record with 61 K’s. Karson Fankhauser was also great on the bump with 62 K’s himself and led the Sentinels with 58 innings pitched. Karson will be the lead guy next year for Mountain Ridge as this was just his junior season.
The Lone Peak Knights took baseball by storm when they starting off scorching hot at 13-0 and it took them til their 2nd region series to be handed their first loss on the year. SLCC commit Landon Fry was great for the Knights as a two way stud hitting .398 at the plate with 9 doubles, but also posting a 7-2 record with 49 K’s on the bump. Grady Slesk was the other big time pitcher for Lone Peak as he struck out everyone leading all of 6A with 87 strikeouts! The Knights also had football star Kingston Stroshine who was a star for them in baseball who only got 57 AB’s due to injury but made the most of it hitting an absurd .579 as a FRESHMAN! Some great players for LP, but don’t forget to mention junior shortstop Boston Walkenhorst who led the team in hits, doubles and home runs with 35, 10 and 6.
Another region 3 squad that showed to be a force to be reckoned with were the 2024 state champion Lehi Pioneers. Lehi was led by big time prospect Jake Welch who is just a sophomore, but put together a stat line of .481 BA, 12 2B, 5 HR, 18 SB, and 32 RBI’s, while also giving the Pioneers 30 K’s on 70 batters faced for good measure. Hazen Elton crushed it in his senior season hitting .386 with 11 doubles and 7 deep shots with a team high 34 RBI’s. Elton was also very productive on the defensive side being a top notch catcher. Lehi’s pitching unit was lead by Sawyer Call who threw 46 good innings, but the Pioneers were very much a team by committee as they had 6 other players tally 10+ innings pitched on top of Call’s 46.
Riverton baseball has built consistency and power in recent years and are always looking to add some more memorabilia to their trophy room. This year saw them as contenders all year long. Seniors Bryce Mounteer, McKade Ortiz and Cohen Allred led the way leading the team in hits with Mounteer catching a 1st team all state selection thanks to his .466 batting average. Ortiz is a baseball player through and through and has an amazing glove at shortstop and one of the most underrated players in the state. Cohen was a big bat for Riverton leading the team in Home Runs and triples! Riverton also had many different options on the bump with 5 different guys throwing over 23 innings. But it was Rocky Downs and Boston Hatch who were the top dawgs. Hatch kept a 1.31 ERA as a sophomore good for one of the best in the state. While Rocky went 6-1 and threw 61 strikeouts as the lefty pitcher was no doubt one of 6As best.
State Tournament
The 6A state tournament was fairly standard with a few minor upsets, Corner Canyon upset number 6 Bingham, then got the best of Lone Peak despite being swept earlier in the year. But it was the Skyridge Falcons who are to be talked about here. Skyridge entered the tournament as a very respectable 7 seed. The Falcons were extremely close to being sent home in the first round twice! They dropped game 1 to Copper Hills and squeaked by in games 2 and 3 winning each by 1 run to survive and advance…. all the way to the state championship. The Falcons tournament run is headlined by senior Miles Robinson who was out of his mind! In a win or go home game vs Copper Hills, Robinson led off the the Falcons and went 3-4 with a double and a triple! He hit another double and triple in their first game vs Mountain Ridge adding 3 RBI’s and was walked 3 times in that game. Miles stayed red hot vs Corner Canyon going 3-3 with a double a bomb and 3 RBI’s. Thanks to others as well the Falcons found themselves in the final round vs the American Fork Cavemen who swept them in the season series.
State Championship
Game 1 was won by the Kenny Johnson. The star pitcher for the American Fork Cavemen has done it again! The Falcons put up a great fight, but when Johnson posts a complete game, no earned runs and 7 strikeouts there’s not much you can do. The Cavemen win 2-1.
Game 2 the Cavemen got another complete game out of sophomore Cruz Adams holding down the fort and only allowing 3 runs was enough as his teammates helped him out on the other side… specifically teammate Bode Gaggero. Bode wanted to be a 3x state champion and he proved that and more by hitting not one but 2 nukes tallying 3 RBI’s that were vital in the Cavemen winning! Again Skyridge fought hard and gave a great game, but it was too much to overcome as this AF team had too many weapons all year long! AF wins their 3rd state title in the last 4 years and Coach Ingersoll is now sitting on a 444-195 career record. Incredible.
Season Standouts
Jowell Dasni was a big time player for the Layton Lancers and went yard 9 times to lead all of 6A. Dasni was not just a heavy hitter as he hit at a .430 showing consistency and versatility.
Ripken Roberts showed out to close his high school career leading 6A with 24 stolen bags but an even more impressive .419 at the plate and pitching well for Skyridge picking up 6 wins.
Porter Larsen Jaxson Sisam and Crew Dredge hit it well for a tough Bingham squad all over .350 while teammates Noah Devroom and Beckham Lindsay were part of a good 3 man pitching rotation that also included Dredge.
Kooper Beebe was stellar for Copper Hills on both sides. 2nd in 6A with 72 strikeouts while hitting .419 at the plate and 13 doubles made him one of the best 2 way players in Utah.
Talon Peterson posted a 5-1 record for Jordan throwing 61 innings while his teammate Kade Carter threw for 52 and led the Beetdigger offense with 32 hits.
Will Nixon saw the baseball as a watermelon this year hitting an even .500 on the year in his senior season for the Davis Darts.
Final Thoughts
6A was well balanced. American Fork is a power house, but they had their fair share of challenges this year. Region 3 top to bottom was loaded, while region 2 was very competitive as well. We see a lot of top end talent moving on to the next level in division 1 and high end Jucos. 6A will always be loaded and a big chunk of those high level prospects will be returning to play ball for their schools in 2027. Expect another competitive year next year!