PROVO, Utah – Managing a pitching staff and pitch counts during the last few days of a state tournament is a stressful thing for baseball coaches.
Grantsville’s Josh Staley made things pretty easy on his coach during the 3A quarterfinals at Salt Lake Community College’s Cate Field on Thursday in West Jordan.
With his team facing top seed Juab, coach Aaron Perkins had tentatively mapped out using starter Staley for about three or four innings and then bringing in Broc Miller for three or four innings if things were going well.
Turns out he only needed to use Miller for one inning.
Staley was absolutely dominant on Thursday, only allowing two hits during six innings of shutout baseball as he led Grantsville to the statement 5-0 victory over Juab to march on in the 3A winners bracket.
“The thing I like about Josh is we knew Josh would throw strikes, and our game plan coming in was to keep the ball away from them. He used his fastball and he dominated the outer half of the plate and they didn’t make adjustments,” said Perkins. “I couldn’t take a kid out who’s living on the outer half.”
Staley finished the game with six strikeouts and one walk, only allowing a double in the fourth inning and a single in the fifth. The closest thing he faced to a jam came in that fifth inning. After Juab’s Trey Lund reached on an infield single, he moved to third on a pickoff attempt throwing error. After a two-out walk, suddenly the Wasps had runners at the corners with two out.
Staley calmly got Juab’s leadoff hitter to fly out to end the inning.
“I was just trying to throw strikes. We just have the best defense out there, I just felt like I could throw strikes and my defense would back me up,” said Staley.
At the plate, Grantsville only had six hits but it drew 11 walks as it constantly put Juab’s pitching staff under pressure. Grantsville struggled to capitalize though, leaving runners on base every inning.
Thanks to an RBI single by Staley in the second inning though, Grantsville was playing from ahead most of the game.
“They’re a disciplined group that understands how we’re going to win. We’re not a team that’s going to come out and get 15 hits — that’s just not who we are — but we can grind at the plate and draw walks and move runners and get key hits when we need,” said Perkins, whose team avenged a preseason loss to Juab with the victory.
His team finally started to tack on some insurance runs in the sixth inning after Juab starter Dalin Ludlow reached his pitch count. After Grantsville’s first three batters reached base to open the sixth on two walks and a hit batter, Blake Thomas grounded in a run on a fielder’s choice, doubling the lead to 2-0. Two more runners would score on a ground ball out and then a wild pitch.
In the seventh, Staley tripled in another run as he finished the game going 2 for 3 at the plate with two walks and two RBI.
“It’s exciting, if we keep playing like we have been, a couple more games is my mindset,” said Staley.
With the victory, No. 5 seed Grantsville moves onto Friday’s winners bracket semifinal where it will face No. 6 seed Richfield.
The Wildcats took care of business in the second quarterfinal game at SLCC on Thursday beating No. 2 seed Judge Memorial 9-5. Kasey Giddings belted out a pair of solo home runs to pace Richfield at the plate while Max Robinson picked up the win on the mound.
