OGDEN — Down two runs in the top of the seventh inning, the mystique of Taylorsville baseball took over.
"I told them to just go out and take it one pitch, one out and one at-bat at a time," said Taylorsville coach Guy Mackay.
The approach worked.
Taylorsville overcame the deficit and forced extra innings before blowing the game wide open in the eighth inning and cruising to a 17-8 win over Viewmont Wednesday afternoon at Lindquist Field.
"We knew we could come back," said Preston Grimes.
For a while, it did not look like the Warriors were going to need to worry about trailing. Trevor Aardema took care of that. In his first at-bat in the second inning, with Bret Kone on base, he hit a laser that may have still been rising when it crashed into the left-field scoreboard for the early 2-0 lead. Viewmont answered, however, in the bottom of the inning on Tyler Mitchell's and Kip Williams' RBI singles.
Aardema again took matters into his hands when he cranked a ball just beyond the 390-foot sign in left-center with Kone on base again. He said that coming into the tournament he had been in a bit of a batting slump. That appears to be over.
"I hit three home runs when I was 12," said Aardema. "But it's a little harder now in high school."
Even with Aardema's career day in full swing, Viewmont found ways to not only stay in the game, but began to control it. Braeden Schlehuber hit a two-run double in the third inning, and Cole Miles led off the fourth inning with a solo homer. The Vikings took the lead in the fifth with Schlehuber's two-run shot to left-center.
"I thought we got a little panicked there in the fifth and sixth innings," said Mackay of his squad.
The Warriors regrouped in the seventh. Doug Springer and Christian Rodriguez each singled to start the rally. A costly error on what could have been a double play scored Springer, and T.J. Carrington and Kone each had RBIs to give Taylorsville the lead.
Viewmont tied it in the bottom of the inning on Matt Peay's run-scoring double, but the momentum was all Taylorsville. The Warriors exploded in the eighth, scoring nine runs on six hits and two errors. Aardema hit a two-run double to finish his performance at 3-for-4 with two home runs, a double and six RBIs.
Besides Aardema's big day, Kone finished 2-for-3 with three RBIs and three runs scored, and Aaron Converse was 2-for-5 with two RBIs. Preston Grimes got the win on the mound after throwing the seventh. Brandon Archuleta, Aardema, Austin Padilla and Tyler Curtis all threw at least an inning for the Warriors.
The win for Taylorsville sets up a rematch with Region 3 rival Cottonwood in the winner's bracket finals today at Larry Miller Field on the campus of BYU at 11:30 a.m. The teams split two games during the regular season.
"I am really looking forward to playing," said Grimes.
"Everybody probably thinks we don't have any pitching left," said Mackay. "We hope they do think that. We are just going to go out and try to piece it together." With that Taylorsville magic still at work, there's a good chance the Warriors will be able to do just that.
E-mail: mblack@desnews.com