PAYSON — For the Payson baseball team, it didn't really matter how it won on Wednesday, only that it came out on top of Tooele.
The Lions didn't earn any style points, but they got the job done and kept themselves in the thick of the Region 7 playoff hunt with a 7-4 win over the Buffaloes.
Payson's hitting was average and its pitching adequate. Five of its seven runs were unearned, and the Lions didn't put the game away when they had chances. But the team feels it has lost enough ugly games this year that it deserved to finally win one.
"We've lost in that exact same fashion," said Payson coach Scott Haney. "The baseball gods smile on you sometimes or they don't sometimes. That's just the way baseball is."
The win improves Payson's region record to 3-5, and puts them within half a game of the last playoff spot in the region. The Lions can now move forward knowing they have destiny in their own hands with four games left in the regular season.
"That's the one thing you want to do any time you're trying to get to a tournament," said Haney. "Win the ones you play and let other people worry about themselves."
Payson took control of the game in the first inning thanks to some Tooele errors.
Dalton Smith got on base on a leadoff error and Harry Davis followed, thanks to an interference ruling on the catcher.
Cody Ferguson then brought home both runners with an RBI single.
Two more errors kept the inning alive for eight more batters and allowed three more runs to come in, making the score 5-0.
"I think today we did a little better job of putting the ball in play with guys in scoring position," said Haney. "We got a couple of cheap ones, but when you get pressure on them and get on base, that's what happens."
Tooele recovered with two runs in the second inning, both walked in.
No one else scored until the Lions extended their lead in the bottom of the fifth. Beau Bufton and Austin Atkinson hit back-to-back two-out singles, and then both came home from third base on consecutive wild pitches.
The Buffaloes got those two runs back in the sixth when Matt Gochis hit a two-RBI double, but that was as close as they would get.
Ferguson got the win on the mound for the Lions, striking out four and scattering four hits with seven walks.
E-mail: lham@desnews.com