KEARNS — It took only five batters to display how the Bingham baseball team was going to play. By the time Justin Degiulio came to the plate in the fifth-spot of the line-up, the Miners had loaded the bases. One swing later, Bingham had a 4-0 lead and never looked back as it cruised to a 19-2, five-inning win over Kearns Friday afternoon.
"I thought that when he (Degiulio) hit that grand-slam, it kind of gave us the edge," said Bingham coach Joey Sato. "It gave us some confidence and our guys really just took off from there."
With the new Region 3 format, this game was the second of three this week between the two opponents. On Tuesday, Kearns came back from a five-run deficit to win the game in extra innings. The Miners may have learned from that let-up as they continued to pound out the hits and runs not allowing any chance of a repeat performance.
"I think that we remembered what happened and wanted to make sure we didn't let up any until we knew we had it," said outfielder Jonathon Cluff.
In the third inning, the Miners showed how they took that lesson as their offensive machine got rolling. They sent 12 men to the plate, pounded out seven hits and scored seven runs. Degiulio again stole the spotlight as he had two RBI singles in the same inning. Skyler Young and Bryan Bourne each added an RBI single of their own, and Zach Swasey had a two-RBI single.
The fourth inning was even more impressive offensively for Bingham. This time the team sent 14 batters to the plate. It scored eight runs on six hits and eight of the nine players in the line-up scored a run. The highlights included a two-run single by Bourne, a two-RBI double by Tyler Tuft, an RBI-single by Stetson Peck and a three-run home run by K.C. Peck.
Seven different Miners tallied at least one RBI, but it was Degiulio that was the offensive star. His 4-for-4, six RBI day was the best of his career he admitted.
"I just tried to relax and hit the ball. I was just looking for a base hit, and things worked out pretty well," he said.
While the bats were doing the damage, Kevin Williams took care of business on the mound. Williams allowed two first-inning runs on a Brett Shaw home run and Sean Dean RBI single, but he settled down and did not allow another run in the five innings. He scattered eight hits over the five innings, three of which came in the first inning. A strong pitching performance like this one is exactly what Sato said will be the difference on the Miners' season.
"The key to our season will be out there on the bump (the pitchers mound)," Sato said. "I think we can swing the bat and score runs. The big question will be if we can throw it. If we get some guys to step up and throw some good innings for us we can have a good year."
Bingham (3-2, 1-1 region) and Kearns (3-2, 1-1 region) wrap up the season series today at Bingham at 3 p.m.
E-mail: mblack@desnews.com