HELPER — What could have been an absolute disaster of a day for Parowan baseball coach Matt Labrum turned out to be nothing more than a minor bump. The Rams came back from an early loss and beat Beaver 7-2 to advance to today's 2A championship game against Juan Diego.
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While the Rams were being handled on the field by Juan Diego in Friday's early semifinal, there was action taking place in the bleachers. Had he known about it, the incident would have concerned Labrum even more than the 18-10 pounding his team took.
Labrum's 2-year-old son, Lincoln, fell about 12 feet between a shed and the bleachers and was trapped. Luckily for everyone involved, Lincoln came away with only a scratch behind his ear and some bruises.
"I guess they said he pin-balled his way down or it could have been a lot worse," said Labrum. "He was more happy about the fire trucks that came to look at him. He just kept telling me about them."
His son turned out to be fine, and according to the coach, so is the team. "I told the kids there are four or five ways to win this thing. Obviously, Juan Diego is doing it the easy way, but if you happen to lose, you can still come back and win it," Labrum said.
Trever Smith started the game for Parowan and held the Beavers in check. Beaver was only able to score one run against him on a sacrifice-fly by Brad Levi in the second inning. Having pitched in the earlier game, Smith's arm only held up for three innings.
Stephen Burton, who incidentally pitched in the earlier game as well, entered in the fourth inning and continued to baffle the Beaver hitters.
"I felt like I could throw strikes and get ahead of the batters. When I was able to get ahead, it allowed me to use all my pitches," said Burton. The hurler pitched four strong innings, giving up only three hits, one run on a Levi RBI single, and struck out four.
The Rams' offense came through in the clutch. Jake Warren hit an RBI single in the third, and Burton followed by grounding out but scoring Warren to pick up an RBI.
The fifth inning is when Parowan did most of its damage. Warren again singled in a run, and Trever Smith had an RBI single of his own. With two men still on base, Brad Long came to the plate and appeared to pop out to end the inning, but the ball that was in foul territory was correctly called out of play and allowed Long to continue his at-bat.
"I knew it was out of play and was screaming it from my coaches box," said Labrum. "I was glad they got it right and gave Brad another chance."
Long took advantage and knocked in two runs on a double down the left field line.
"I was happy with the way we responded. We had an opportunity and we took advantage of it. That is what a good team does, and it is what happened to us earlier today," added Labrum.
The win sets up a chance for Parowan to try for some revenge. Juan Diego and Parowan will square off today at 11 a.m. at Helper Field to decide the 2A champion. Because of the double-elimination format, should the Rams beat the Soaring Eagle in the morning contest, a second game would then decide the champion. If Juan Diego wins the first game, it will repeat in winning the 2A title.
In other 2A playoff games Friday:
JUAN DIEGO 18, PAROWAN 10: Juan Diego advanced to the championship game of the 2A tournament by beating the Rams. Jake Selby hit a home run, and Craig Lanzarotta picked up the win on the mound. The Soaring Eagle put up 14 runs in the last three innings.
BEAVER 9, GUNNISON 8: Beaver scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to beat the Bulldogs and stave off elimination in the 2A state playoffs. Tyler McMullin drove in two runs in the inning, and he scored the game-winning run.
PAROWAN 7, BEAVER 2: The Rams used a five-run fifth inning to advance to the 2A championship against Juan Diego. Stephen Burton picked up the win after entering in the fourth inning. Jake Warren and Brad Long each had two RBIs.
E-mail: mblack@desnews.com