‘Wonder and pandemonium’
SPANISH FORK—Senior Ashley Rasmussen had one word, a number, written on her left arm above her gloved hand: “110%.”
This was it. It was the time to give it everything.
Manti softball players celebrate their win over South Summit with silly string and shaving cream in the 3A Championship game.
With two outs on the inning, and a foul ball in the air, Rasmussen dove, extended that same arm, and reeled in the catch that sent Lady Templar fans and players alike into equal wonder and pandemonium.
From that moment, the 2022 Manti Lady Templars were state softball champions.
“I’m just so happy for the girls,” coach Susan Hatch said. “They’ve worked so hard, and they just shined today. They brought their ‘A’ game. That’s what we’ve been waiting for. I’m proud of them.”
Senior Ashley Rasmussen with the final catch of the championship game. Rasmussen, who had 110% written on her arm just above her glove, gave just that as she dove for the hit foul ball to end the game.
The Lady Templars stayed firmly in the winner’s bracket until the very end and faced a rematch with their semifinal opponent, South Summit, for the title game last Saturday. In stark contrast to the low-scoring 3-2 slugfest of the semifinal, Manti piled up the hits on the Wildcats to claim the state title in a 13-0 rout, the encapsulation of an 18-game winning streak going back to April 2.
The win secured Hatch’s sixth state title, first in 3A, in her 18 years as head coach of the Lady Templars, and it was perhaps the sweetest one of them all as Hatch coached the final game of her career that afternoon. Her final moments as head coach of the program ended with celebratory sprays of shaving cream in her face, an unsuspecting bath of ice water, and chants of, “Su-san! Su-san! Su-san!”
Of the many reasons Manti so badly wanted this championship, senior pitcher and team captain Tiffany Hermansen said, “We were doing it for our coach.”
“She’s definitely a stickler with softball,” Hermansen said. “She pushed us to our full potential. We wake up at 5 a.m. almost every week doing early morning workouts. Susan believes in us, so she pushes us to our max.”
Hermansen was also absolutely tired of finishing in second place, the way Manti had the last two seasons. She dominated from the pitching mound, tossing six strikeouts. South Summit’s batters only managed to get the ball past the infield a couple of times the entire game as Hermansen allowed only one hit in five inning.
“I’d taken second all my years of high school, this moment is just icing on the cake,” Hermansen said. “We worked way hard for this moment, and we definitely deserved it.”
On the offensive side, Manti connected with pitch after pitch to string hits together. It didn’t take big hits to make it happen as Hermansen and senior Adalee Olson each hit a double and no triple or home runs were seen, but the Lady Templars collected 12 total hits, including a string of five straight hits in the bottom of the second inning.
Tiffany Hermansen pitches her final pitch across home plate at the championship game.
The Lady Templars wasted no time in turning up the heat on South Summit. Junior Madison Scottorn smacked a grounder to center field as the first Manti batter of the game. A few good base hits and a Hermansen walk later, the bases were loaded, and senior Kathrine Crouch hit a clutch double to drive in two runs for the early lead. It was only the beginning of the initial downpour as senior Rylee Jarvis, junior HayLee Daniels and senior Hadden Taylor each drove in an RBI to round out a 6-0 lead.
Manti used the speed of their lineup to push the issue in baserunning, stealing several bases. In fact, that same aggressiveness proved the only way South Summit could stop the bleeding at times as Manti’s runners got caught being overzealous a few times and were tagged out for it when rounding the home stretch.
Manti continued to floor the gas in the bottom of the second as Scottorn stole home on a fielding error, followed by an RBI from Rasmussen and another RBI from Crouch.
In a fascinating sequence, Manti both helped and hindered their cause when Daniels drove in Hermansen on an RBI, but both Crouch and Jarvis kept sprinting toward home. South Summit was well-positioned to catch them both, leading to a rare instance where the offense scored a run on the same play that the defense got a double play. Nevertheless, it was still all Manti as they led, 10-0.
South Summit regained some life with a solid third inning on defense as star pitcher Indee Jones and the Wildcat defense outed three straight batters to keep Manti from scoring further.
After spending a lot of time that day pitching with a sore shoulder, Jones changed positions and went to first base, leaving South Summit to close out the game with a sophomore pitcher at the mound. In response, Hermansen finally got a hit after being walked her last two trips to the plate. She smacked a double to drive in an RBI, then Crouch scored another one, en route to a 13-0 lead going into the fifth inning.
It became survival time for the Wildcats, facing an early ending via the 10-run rule, but Hermansen at the mound remained the apex predator. After striking out the first batter, the Manti defense caught the next out in the outfield, and Rasmussen delivered the photo finish as she dove into the dirt for the final catch.
“Our team decided that we would give 100 percent, no matter what,” Rasmussen said. “I even wrote it on my arm and stuff. I saw that ball and I thought, ‘Well, I’m going to give it my all to try and catch that, and I did!”
Manti began the season with a swath of losses, going 0-7 to start the season, albeit those losses came in close contests against several of the best teams in the 4A-6A classifications. Despite the rough start, Hatch said those games were crucial to the development of a championship squad. “That’s what my philosophy has been from day one,” Hatch said. “You have to play the best to be the best. I would rather we play a strong team and get our butts kicked than play a team that’s not even going to push us.”
It was a tough field of competition in 3A this year as well. To make it to the title game, Manti had to exorcise their playoff demon earlier than usual, facing their usual championship game nemesis and the four-time defending champions, Grantsville, in the quarterfinals. Finally flipping the script on the team that had held them down for years, Manti claimed a 4-1 win, with both Rasmussen and Hermansen cracking home run hits.
“You can see how strong 3A was,” Hatch said. “It was just showing that we were competing with the best. It was something that, mentally, they needed to do. The game has no memory of what happened in the past.”
Facing South Summit initially in the semifinals, the Wildcats were a headache for Manti to go against as Jones, the top homerun hitter in the state, smacked another one over the fence, along with a second home run being hit in the seventh inning. But thanks to a two-run home run by Hermansen earlier in the game, the closeout in the seventh worked to finish an exceptionally close matchup.
“I felt confident,” Hermansen said. “I worked really hard, especially me and my catcher. We worked too hard to lose.”
Manti had a plethora of valuable seniors contribute to their title run. They graduate a total of seven seniors: Hermansen, Rasmussen, Crouch, Taylor, Jarvis, Olson, and Maquette Hansen. This group finishes its softball career with two runner-up finishes and a state title in three seasons.
As for Hatch, she finishes her storied coaching career with an overall record of 343-137 with six championships. As for what’s next, her answer was simple:
“I am going to spend some extra time being a grandma.”
