BOUNTIFUL — All season long, Bountiful coach Kelly Anderson has been warning his team what happens when the lead-off batter walks.
"For some reason it always comes back to haunt us," he said after the No. 2 ranked Braves were upset by Payson 1-0. "There is nothing you can do when you give a free pass to the first batter . . . That was the difference."
That batter was Payson pitcher Sandy Marvin, who wasted no time stealing second base once she was walked in the top of the sixth inning. Then teammate Janey Ballard ripped a grounder down the third-base line for a double that allowed Marvin to score. Ballard tried to stretch her hit into a triple and was tagged out as she tried to get back to second base. The only run the Lions would need, however, had already scored.
Marvin and Bountiful pitcher Erin Burningham had spent most of the game battling it out with both teams playing very solid defense behind those throwers. The Braves made a few fielding mistakes, a dropped fly and a dropped tag among them, but they didn't hurt the team on the scoreboard. Marvin said when she got on base, she had every confidence her teammates would hit her around, but she was going to do all she could to help herself.
"I was bound and determined to score," said Marvin, who walked only three batters. "I like the close games."
Her first year as a starter on the mound, Marvin said she's spent a lot of time pitching in summer leagues and is no stranger to the pressure the mound brings. The Lions play in a tough region with Spanish Fork and Springville and that, they said, helped prepare them for the intensity of tournament play.
"I think that was a huge help," said Payson coach April Mangum. "My whole goal was just to give ourselves a chance at state."
At one point in the bottom of the fourth inning, Mangum called a time-out and talked with the entire team on the mound. The move came after Marvin made several faces at the umpire indicating she didn't agree with his take on her pitches.
"We had one out and runners on first and second, and I just told the team to make sure we got the out," Mangum said of her advice. "I just wanted to give (Marvin) a chance to calm down a bit because I know she was upset with the umpire."
It worked as the team got the next two batters out on fly balls to left field.
Anderson said the game was almost exactly as he anticipated.
"I'm definitely disappointed," he said, noting Marvin's walk was the only one of the game for Burningham. "We've just got to re-group . . . They made the plays when they needed to and we didn't. This is the first game that I felt we lost to a better team."
The Lions helped themselves quite a bit with the win as it ensures they'll be playing at Cottonwood Complex next week. They'll face Orem on Thursday.
E-mail: adonaldson@desnews.com