PLEASANT GROVE — The Pleasant Grove Vikings did all the timely things necessary to win a baseball game Tuesday afternoon.
In an 8-4 win over Orem in the Region 7 opener, the Vikings came through with several timely hits, and their pitching staff clamped down for the timely outs whenever the Tigers threatened.
The single run the Vikings scored in the second came from only an infield hit. The sole run they scored in the third was also manufactured with only one hit. The Vikings effectively used the stolen base, sacrifice bunt, sacrifice fly and ground-ball outs to push runs across early. They also capitalized on a handful of Orem errors.
Only three of Pleasant Grove's runs came from hard-hit balls. Roby Weber opened the fourth with a solo home-run to center field to give the Vikings a 3-0 lead. But the key hit came in the sixth when pinch-hitter Josh Mitton lined a double over the left fielder's head, knocking in two runs and pushing the Vikings' lead back up to four after Orem had narrowed the gap to one.
"I was just thinking about putting the bat on the ball," Mitton said.
Mitton scored a couple batters later on a wild pitch.
The two runs Pleasant Grove scored in the bottom of the fourth were typical of how opportunistic the Vikings were. Weber's home-run came on a full count, one pitch after the Tigers coaching staff argued that he should have been called out on strikes. The second run of the inning was scored by Josh Smith, who reached base by lining a single to left — one pitch after Orem catcher Trent Barney dropped a foul pop-up.
Even though the Tigers posted four runs on the board, timely pitching kept the Vikings on top the entire game. In the third, fourth and fifth innings, starter Travis Mehlhoff retired the final two batters in each inning with Tigers runners in scoring position. Five of those six outs were strikeouts. The tall right-hander had Orem hitters' knees buckling with his sharp breaking ball and swinging late at his near-90 mph fastball.
After five scoreless innings, the Tigers finally reached Mehlhoff in the sixth. Barney opened the inning with a towering home-run to left field. Following a ground-out, Mike Morgan and Andy Wilding hit back-to-back singles. Ryan Fehlberg knocked them in with a triple off the center-field wall.
But with one out and Fehlberg on third as the potential tying run, relief pitcher Ryan Davis came in and did what Mehlhoff had done the innings before — shut the door. He retired Rob McKinney on a foul pop and Matt McCoy on a soft grounder to end the inning with the Vikings still ahead 4-3. Pleasant Grove came back with four insurance runs in the bottom half behind the two-run double by Mitton.
BOYS' GAMES
REGION 1
WEBER 6, DAVIS 4: Two Warriors went two for three from the plate to help them earn their first win.
VIEWMONT 4, FREMONT 2:Cole Miles went three for three from the plate and scored one run as the Vikings scored all four runs in the first and held on the rest of the way for the win.
CLEARFIELD 2, NORTHRIDGE 0: The Falcons started Region 1 play off right by squeezing by the Knights.
REGION 7
PLEASANT GROVE 8, OREM 4:Travis Mehlhoff pitched five scoreless innings and Josh Mitton hit a two-run double in the bottom of the sixth to pace the Vikings in the Region 7 opener.
NON-REGION
RICHFIELD 10, CANYON VIEW 0:Austin Anderson pitched six innings, recording seven strikeouts and punching in three RBIs as the Wildcats cruised.
GUNNISON 7, JUAB 3:Adam Blackham went 2-3 with a pair of RBI's for Gunnison.
COTTONWOOD 3, HIGHLAND 0: The Colts blanked the Rams on four hits and one error.
BOUNTIFUL 8, GRANGER 5:Chase Christensen pitched his second complete game and Casey Getzelman went two for four and scored two runs as the Braves took care of the Lancers.
TAYLORSVILLE 9, WEST JORDAN 2:Jason Bennion got three hits and drove in a run, and got the win for the Warriors.
LONE PEAK 6, SPANISH FORK 5: The Knights slipped by the Dons with three runs in the sixth inning.
NORTH SEVIER 8, SOUTH SUMMIT 2: A five-run third inning put it away for North Sevier.
PAYSON 4, OLYMPUS 2:Lance Jensen scattered three hits and then held on for the win.
PROVO 8, VALLEY, ALB. NM 7:Dave McGarry smashed three extra base hits, including a homerun and drove in 4 RBIs in the Bulldogs win over Valley High of New Mexico.
BRIGHTON 8, SKYLINE 3:Brandon Walters went four for four with three RBIs as the Bengals amassed 11 hits.
E-MAIL: jimr@desnews.com