This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Herriman • Bear River softball made the trip south on Tuesday to face a Class 5A quality opponent. While the Bears didn't go deep, they often found real estate between the outfielders and the fence.

In a game that had plenty of everything, Class 3A Bear River went deeper and more frequently in a 16-12 victory against Herriman.

"That's one of the ugliest, most exciting games we've had in a long time," said Bear River coach Calvin Bingham, whose team improved to 10-1 on the season.

Bear River has knocked off defending Class 4A champion Spanish Fork this season as well as 5A perennial power Bingham. In region play, the Bears have demolished their first three opponents by a combined 52-2.

Against Herriman (7-9), which made it to the 5A finals a year ago, Bear River hit five long shots over Mustangs' outfielders in the last four innings.

"I think we're a lot better than we were last year. We've been hitting really good," said Bears' leadoff hitter Mercedes Call, who twice sent triples over the head of the Herriman centerfielder.

In the early innings, the game included a couple of fielding oddities.

When Bear River scored four runs in the second, while only recording one hit, every Herriman infielder except the pitcher and catcher committed an error.

Then, in the bottom of the third, Herriman also scored four runs while every Bear River outfielder also had fielding errors.

"We've had spring break and we've had a lot of rain. And we haven't been out to practice like we've needed to," Bingham said. "We probably had as many errors in this game as we've had all season long."

Both teams committed seven errors. Bear River's 16 runs were also fueled by 16 hits while Herriman's hit-count reached 14.

Trailing 5-4 after three innings, the Bears tied the game after Call tripled and came home on a sacrifice fly on a great diving catch by Herriman leftfielder Katie Eastman.

In the fifth, Call's second triple came right on the heels of a two-run double by Lynsey Valverde to dead center. In the sixth, Bear River's Oakli Rhodes and Kapri Toone doubled as part of a five-run rally.

Kenzie Summers also doubled to deep center in the seventh to go with a triple by Dacia Hobbs.

"It was like a slugfest, who could hit the most bombs out there," Herriman coach Heidi McKissick said. "They just had some huge, solid big hits. We had some hits, just not as big as theirs."

Mustangs' catcher Ashlynn Visser slammed three doubles and drove in four runs. Overall, however, it was a rough couple of days for Herriman, which lost 14-9 to region rival Lehi on Monday.

After the second straight prodigious run-scoring game, McKissick was happy her squad got to host Bear River.

"I play this team because they're one of the best teams in the state — and I want us to get better," she said.