WEST JORDAN — After 11 complete innings against No. 3 Copper Hills, about all the Brighton Bengals had left was heart heading into the final inning — and they called upon it in upsetting the Grizzlies, 4-2, in the second round of the Class 5A baseball tournament Wednesday.
Heading into their final at-bats, Brighton's Jeremy Brown was 0-for-5, and Brady Green was 0-for-5 with four strikeouts, but they got their first base hits of the game in the 12th. Brown delivered an RBI triple to score Tyler Olson, who walked, for the go-ahead run, and Green scored Brown with an RBI single for the insurance run to lead the Bengals to the victory.
"Our guys went out there with a lot of heart. They failed a lot but they worked hard at it," Brighton coach Greg Hales said. "We know our kids; if we leave them in there, they are going to compete."
As expected, Brighton's Pat Overholt and Copper Hills' Jason Price hooked up in a pitchers' duel, but in end, neither figured in the decision. Overholt fired nine innings and allowed just four hits while striking out 12, while Price allowed just four hits and struck out 11 in eight innings. Both allowed just two runs.
With the victory, the Bengals (14-7) are one of four unbeaten teams left in the tournament and draw a bye until Tuesday when they meet Hillcrest at 7 p.m. at Lindquist Field in Ogden.
"We're deep in pitching and we feel confident with our kids throwing," Hales said. "We feel like we're in a position where we want to be."
The Bengals need just three wins to win the championship, and they have Olson, who won Game 1 of the tournament at Cottonwood; Overholt; and Kyle Scogin, who fired three innings of no-hit ball against the Grizzlies in earning the victory. He also fanned five.
The Grizzlies fall into the losers' bracket and play Layton at 1:30 p.m. at Lindquist Field. They would need to win seven straight games to claim the championship.
The Brighton win was the first over the Grizzlies in three tries. The Bengals lost 5-4 in eight innings and 4-3 in seven innings in Region 2 play.
"We knew, eventually, things would go our way," Hales said.
Brighton carried a 2-1 lead heading into the bottom of the eighth inning, but Copper Hills' Jon Lignell delivered the equalizer with a one-out solo homer to right field off Overholt.
Relievers Josh Madsen and Scogin squared off in a pitchers' mini-duel in the 10th and 11th before Brown's and Green's 12th-inning heroics.
The Grizzlies got a runner to third in the 11th but couldn't push across the winner, and they had a runner on second in the 12th, but Scogin, a hard-throwing righthander, struck out the last two Copper Hills hitters to end the game.
Copper Hills scored the first run of the game in the third on two Bengal errors, and by the way it looked, Price was going to make the run stand, but the Bengals manufactured a run in the fourth to tie the game.
With two outs and runners on second and third, Price struck out Overholt for the apparent third out. However, the catcher didn't catch the ball cleanly and Overholt reached first. Price hit Olson with the next pitch to force in the run.
Overholt worked out of a jam in the seventh when the Grizzlies got runners on first and second with no outs. Copper Hills' Derek Job hit a hard liner back to Overholt, which he flagged, and then he turned and doubled off the runner at first. Then sophomore catcher Brandon Walters, playing for Dan Rudisill, who broke his hand in practice Friday, gunned down a Copper Hills runner trying to swipe third to end the inning.
Jon Knoble, Olson and Bubba Grant had two hits each in Brighton's nine-hit attack.
Dalin Barnes led Copper Hills with two hits. Chad Berg and Lignell had the Grizzlies' other two hits.
5A PLAYOFFS
TAYLORSVILLE 13, BINGHAM 3: Five players had at least two hits for Taylorsville.
ALTA 10, CLEARFIELD 0:Alex Rosenhan pitched a shutout with six Ks, and went 3-for-3 with a double, a home run and four RBIs as the Hawks advance.
HILLCREST 15, DAVIS 5:Jed Schutler drove in four runs on four hits in the win for Hillcrest.
JORDAN 13, NORTHRIDGE 6: Jordan took an early lead and never gave it up in an upset of Northridge.
LAYTON 12, GRANGER 2:Wyatt Bubock went 3-for-4 and J.J. Love went 4-for-5 in the Layton's convincing win over Granger.
COTTONWOOD 16, FREMONT 2:Chad Larsen went 3-for-4 with two RBI's and two runs scored in the win for Cottonwood.
VIEWMONT 6, KEARNS 0:Trevor Peterson and Luke Flinders combined to drive in four runs for the Vikings, Brandon Barber pitched a three-hit shutout.
E-mail: jhinton@desnews.com