OGDEN -- The way the Taylorsville Warriors keep winning American Legion tournament games seems as if it came right off a script from a B-movie or a very bad Disney baseball flick. For the second straight year, it seems that someone -- or something -- is watching over them, making sure the Warriors win the tournament in consecutive years no matter how tough their competition may be.

In Thursday's semifinal game against the Brighton Bengals, the Warriors were outhit, outmuscled and, at times, outpitched. But, in what proved to be the deciding factor in Taylorsville's 8-7 victory, the Warriors were not outfielded.Brighton committed six errors while the Warriors countered the Bengals' slippery fingers and rubber arms by making several overhead catches along the warning track and turning two double plays to kill Brighton rallies in the bottom of the third and eighth innings.

Despite their fielding woes, the Bengals were actually in control of the ballgame for most of the afternoon -- once starting pitcher Sean Overhult settled down. Overhult hit one batter, walked another four and gave up three hits and four runs in the first two innings but quickly settled down in time to retire seven straight batters and blank the high-powered Warriors for three straight innings.

Overhult, who pitched a complete game in the hard-luck loss, had what seemed plenty of offensive help, with catcher Nate Fry smacking two home runs and driving in four runs and Saba going 3-5 with a two-run homer of his own.

However, all of Brighton's offense and Overhult's support came in the top of the batting order. The bottom five batting positions went a combined 1-14 with no RBI while grounding into two double plays, consistently plaguing the Bengals as they first tried to build upon their 6-4 lead after four innings and then as they tried to catch the Warriors after Mower crushed a seventh inning two-run blast off the scoreboard to put the defending champs up 8-6.

Despite Overhult's stretch of superior pitching, he was ultimately overshadowed by winning pitcher Jake Thomas, who entered the game in the bottom of the third inning and held the Bengals to six hits and three runs in 62/3 innings before Matt Sheperd recorded the game's final out for the save.

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Taylorsville Manager Justin Thomas said after the game that Jake Thomas' performance, as well as his team's defense, were the keys to Taylorsville's victory

The Warriors take on 5A runner-up Mountain View in Friday's American Legion final at Lindquist Field.

MOUNTAIN VIEW 11, WEBER 7: The Weber Warriors' improbable run through the American Legion tournament came to a halt Thursday afternoon when they fell to heavyweights Mountain View, 11-7.

Despite the Bruins' generally impressive play, Weber let the game slip away by committing three errors and failing to capitalize in the fifth and sixth innings, when they loaded the bases both times but failed to score a run.

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