Orem • It wasn't baserunning — it was more like speed dating.

The ping of the bat was the buzzer, and when it sounded, the Spanish Fork players moved on to the next station. The Dons circled the infield at Utah Valley University 21 times Friday. Twenty-one runs in two games against an overmatched Snow Canyon team that could only watch as the 4A championship trophy went home with someone else.

After rising from the losers' bracket to the championship round, the Dons beat Snow Canyon twice — first 12-7 and then in a 9-0 romp — to win its third straight baseball championship.

"Our bats came alive," senior center fielder Travis Still said.

In the second and deciding game of the championship series, the Dons started fast, leading 6-0 after the third inning.

"You jump on a team early like that," shortstop Hayden Nielsen said, "you have it in the bag. You're just having fun."

For the Dons, the championship capped a 29-3 season that, aside from this week's quarterfinal loss to Snow Canyon, was perfect against 4A competition. Spanish Fork won a national tournament in the spring in Arizona, and entering this week, it was ranked the No. 11 team in the country by ESPN Rise.

Yet, this week, the Dons had to negotiate the losers' bracket, something they had never done in any of their previous five championships.

"I think that was a wake-up call," said coach Jim "Shoe" Nelson, "because we're pretty good. There's a reason we're ranked nationally."

Still, whose three hits Friday included a home run and a triple, was even more blunt: "One of my teammates said, 'They just woke up the giants.' "

The giants included designated hitter Kayden Porter, who, in two games, was 5 for 7, with three home runs — all in the first game — a triple, a double and eight runs batted in.

"He's a force," Nelson said.

The same could be said of the Dons. They required three more games — eight total— than it would have taken to win the championship if they had cruised through the winners' bracket. Spanish Fork pitchers Nielsen and Matt Nelson picked up wins, despite throwing the day before. As soon as Friday's second game was done, the Dons were already talking about winning a fourth straight championship next season, when Spanish Fork moves down to Class 3A. A coach hugged Nielsen, a junior, and said, "Let's go get another."

The Dons played this season to experience the emotion of Friday evening —"Indescribable," Still called it — but couldn't avoid looking forward, wondering if the next one might be even better. —

Highlights

R Spanish Fork wins its third straight championship, the past two of which have come in Class 4A.

• After losing to Snow Canyon in the quarterfinals, the Dons score 64 runs in their final five games.