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By Eric Butler

A pair of softball teams met Thursday with similar résumés. Neither is thinking about winning a region championship, but both have playoff berths already wrapped up with a week to go in the regular season.

Two hours later, the analysis of a 14-2 lopsided game was a decidedly good prognosis for Class 3A's Payson, which won the contest.

For host Olympus, from Class 4A, work still needs to be done.

Payson (17-7) plated four runs, including a two-run homer from freshman Bailee Kay, in the second and then put the game away with six runs in the sixth and three more in the seventh.

In those last two innings, the rallies were buoyed by home runs from seniors Caide Hunt and Makenzie Simons.

The game was played on the heels of a 24-run outburst by Payson against Richfield the day before.

"Like any team, we've had our internal problems, but we've worked it out," Lions coach Brent Shurtliff said. "Since we've worked it out, we've been hitting the heck out of the ball."

The only losses in Region 12 for Payson have come at the hands of Juab, which has dropped two games this season.

"The [Richfield] coach said he couldn't believe we lost to Juab hitting like that," Shurtliff said. "But Juab had our number."

Simons pitched the entire way for the victory, although she was originally going to work a couple of innings. She hadn't taken the circle since hurting her wrist the week before.

But once the game started, Shurtliff said, Simons wasn't experiencing any pain. The Lions senior worked her way out of jams in the third and fourth innings with only one run scored.

In the fourth, with the score 5-2, Olympus (11-9) got consecutive hits from Reagan Everett and London Davis to put runners on second and third with no outs. But Shurtliff induced a comeback ground out and then struck out a batter.

After Kennedy Singer walked to load the bases, Olympus junior Miranda Johnson was robbed by Payson's Kassidy Biggs down the left-field line of an extra-base hit to end the threat.

The host Titans had suffered a 10-0 loss to Class 5A Hunter the day before. Olympus doesn't have any more Region 7 games on the schedule and will wait to find out if it is seeded second, third or fourth in the state tournament.

Davis popped a solo dinger for the Titans in the second, but Olympus coach Madi White said that the overall lack of hitting is what's worrying her the most.

"We don't have any pitchers that are dominant and are going to strike everyone out — and we know that," White said. "We're willing to work with that. The fact that we're not scoring enough runs is concerning. We just haven't been hitting, and that's what we need to fix." —

Payson 14, Olympus 2

R Payson gets homers from Bailee Kay, Caide Hunt and Makenzie Simons in the win.

• The Lions rap eight hits, including Hunt's three-run shot, for six runs in the sixth inning.

• Simons pitches a complete-game victory for the visitors. She allows two hits in four different innings, but gives up two Olympus runs.