Prep baseball: Maple Mountain takes down Woods Cross 8-5 in extra innings

Kade Poulson stood out at the plate and on the mound Wednesday afternoon as he helped the Maple Mountain Golden Eagles outlast the Woods Cross Wildcats 8-5 in 10 innings and advance in the Class 4A playoffs.

After relieving teammate Wes Childs and throwing a shutout ninth inning, Poulson hit a bases-clearing, three-run double off Wildcats reliever Ty Draper into left field to give his team their first lead since the Golden Eagles led 1-0 in bottom of the fourth.

"It's one of my top hits for sure," Poulson said. "I wouldn't even have been in that situation without my teammates getting on base, I have faith in myself and I did what I was supposed to do. We knew that we could do it; we had a lot of guys come through in the clutch. It was a team effort and a team win for sure."

After giving his team the lead, Poulson went onto the mound in the bottom of the 10th to face a desperate Woods Cross team that has some of the quickest runners in the state, but Poulson held on as Maple Mountain beat Woods Cross for the second time this season.

"I'm much more confident in my hitting, I'm not really a big pitcher," Poulson said. "I come in when my team needs me, they called my name and I went out there and did my job."

Poulson was as cool and composed after the game, unlike Golden Eagles coach Gary Miner.

"I'm an emotional basketcase," Miner said. "I love seeing them play the game right."

Perhaps most impressive about Maple Mountain's win is they spent a good portion not playing the game right. The Golden Eagles were scoreless in the third inning, stranding three runners. They allowed Woods Cross to take the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning with four runs off five hits and a wild pitch, and had four base runners caught stealing in addition to a few close calls on the basepaths.

"That's the game — it's hard," Miner said. "We're just happy to have teammates right, left and behind that will say 'OK, my turn.'"

Miner did not avoid his team's shortcomings, and acknowledged they have some work to do to get ready for the quarterfinals.

"We definitely need to improve on some of the little things, what do we want to accomplish offensively and defensively … there's little things that we'll work on," Miner said. "We'll rest up some arms and we'll head back to the drawing board, but these guys love to practice … we've got a great group of seniors that always ask to go hit, but we're not going to reinvent the wheel." —

4A Scoreboard

Wednesday's Second Round

• Orem 19, Olympus 9

• Maple Mountain 8, Woods Cross 5, 10 innings

• Corner Canyon 9, Salem Hills 7

• Timpanogos 11, Spanish Fork 1

May 24 Quarterfinals

At UVU

• Orem vs. Maple Mountain, 4:30 p.m.

• Corner Canyon vs. Timpanogos, 7 p.m.

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Storylines

R Maple Mountain sent in three relief pitchers (Sam Moore, Wes Childs and Kade Poulson) after pulling starter Tyson Ellis.

• The teams combined to strand 23 baserunners (13 for Maple Mountain, 10 for Woods Cross).

• Poulson's two innings of relief pitching was his longest outing of the year.

• Maple Mountain's Sam Moore hit his second home run of the year in the top of the fifth inning.