By Josh McFadden | [email protected]

Winning a region title is one thing, but capturing a state championship is something else. 

The Olympus baseball team crossed the first item of its list. Now, the Titans eye the second.

Olympus cruised through the regular season with a 22-2 record and a 13-1 mark in Region 6. The Titans were a game ahead of second-place Cottonwood. More importantly, the team earned the top seed in the Class 5A state tournament. 

The Utah High School Activities Association introduced a new playoff format, with the opening rounds consisting of best-of-three series. Olympus drew 16th-seeded Wasatch and dispatched the Wasps in two games to advance to the championship round. 

Game one took place May 20 on Olympus’ home field. The Titans scored in each of the first five innings, including five runs in the fifth to open up a 10-3 lead. Wasatch added a run in the seventh, but it wasn’t nearly enough, as the Titans prevailed 10-4, despite getting outhit 8-7. Ashton Johnson had two doubles and three RBI for Olympus. Corbin Sanchez and Jacob Hall also had doubles, with Sanchez added two RBI. 

On May 21, Olympus used great pitching from Josh VandenAkker and solid fielding to win the second game 8-0. The Titans surrendered just three hits and again scored in each of the first five innings. Zach Goodrich stole the show offensively. The senior hit a home run and had two RBI. Jacob Faust hit a triple, while Johnson and Benson Tolman both had doubles. 

Sweeping opponents was nothing new for Olympus. The early round tournament results against Wasatch were continuations form occurred all year. Olympus swept every region foe except Skyline, which defeated the Titans 6-0 on April 20. The Titans won every other league game and suffered just one other loss all year, a 6-4 defeat at the hands of non-region foe Stansbury on April 30. 

Blowouts were no strangers to the Titans either. 

Olympus posted 11 double-digit scoring gums and even had a pair of 20-plus-run outings: a 27-2 thrashing of West Jordan on March 17 and a football-like 21-0 blanking of East on April 21. Fifteen of the team’s 22 regular season games were wins by at least five runs for Olympus. 

As of our press time, Olympus had hit 11 home runs, with VandenAkker, Johnson and Mic Paul each connecting on two. Paul also led the team with six triples. Johnson was the leader with 34 RBI and also posted a stellar 10-1 record from his pitching position. VandenAkker was 8-1 on the mound, while Tolman was a perfect 5-0. 

Following their conquest of Wasatch, the Titans are set to play Orem on May 24 at 7 p.m.

Ten Olympus players will graduate after this season. However, 12 players on this year’s varsity roster are underclassmen.