PROVO — Brian Dickinson had the kind of stuff Monday to right a wayward ship.
The Mountain View junior's pitching performance was the momentum changer in the Bruins 10-5 victory over Sky View at the Class 4A baseball playoffs.
After a sloppy start put the Bruins into an early 3-0 hole, Dickinson took over on the mound in the second and shut down the Bobcats over the next sixth innings — allowing only two infield hits and retiring 15 of the last 17 hitters with his fastballs, sliders and change-ups. He knew heading into the game that if starter Dan Mangum got into trouble that he'd get the early call.
"I felt pretty good today," Dickinson said. "I had all of my stuff working."
His stellar relief job seemed to turn the Bruins around defensively and offensively as well. Mountain View scored the game's final six runs, and the porous defense behind the mound finally stabilized.
The Bobcats posted their three first-inning runs on two walks, a single by Brad Singer, a Mountain View error and a wild pitch. But the Bruins stormed back with a four-spot in the second. They loaded the bases on a double by Jake Nelson, a single by Andrew Lancaster and a walk to Steve Loveland to set the table for Nathan Heriford who cleared it with a three-run double to the left-field gap. Dickinson followed with a single to right field to score Heriford.
However, Mountain View gave the lead right back — literally — in the bottom half. A walk and an error on a double-play ball put two runners on for the Bobcats. Brian Freeman then hit a slow grounder toward third that Jim Little fielded but threw into right field, allowing both runners to score.
With the score 5-4 for the Bobcats after two innings, the Bruins sloppy defense finally ended, and Sky View's bats became silent. On the other side, Mountain View's bats were just getting started, and the Bobcats began with the sloppy defense.
"If we don't get a couple of runs early, we always kind of start to tense up if we fall behind," Dickinson said. "Once we got those four runs in the second inning, that really got us going because then we had the lead and started relaxing."
Mountain View regained the lead for good in the top of the third with three more runs. The first two scored when Sky View leftfielder Jared Hyde dropped a liner. The third crossed when Heriford hit a grounder off of the pitcher's glove. Lancaster singled home another run in the fourth and the Bruins added two more in the sixth on a two-run towering home run off of the scoreboard by Dan McCartney.
Mountain View will play Provo, 11-0 winners Monday over Cyprus, today at 1:30 p.m. at Miller Park at BYU in the one-loss bracket. The loser will be done for the season, with the winner moving on to face either Lone Peak or Springville on Wednesday.
E-mail: jimr@desnews.com