Our pitch-calling and knowing that I have a defense behind me has helped a lot. It's great to be able to throw a strike and know that they're going to hit the ball and (the defense) will make plays. – Woods Cross senior right-hander Alex Johnson

WOODS CROSS — To say that Woods Cross High School has the premier baseball team in Region 5 would be like saying, oh, that Steph Curry is a pretty decent basketball player, or that Donald Trump's got a really bad wrap-around hairdo.

So, ya think?

Senior right-hander Alex Johnson pitched a masterful one-hit shutout and capped the Wildcats' impressive showing with a two-run, walk-off double in the sixth inning as Woods Cross whipped neighboring rival Bountiful 10-0 on Tuesday to clinch its second straight region championship.

With two games to go in the regular season, the Wildcats boast a spotless 16-0 league slate and are now 18-5 overall. They have outscored their Region 5 foes by a whopping margin of 239-15 in piling up 16 straight region wins. They'll face the second-place Braves (13-3 Region 5, 16-5 overall) again today and Friday before moving on to the 4A state tournament next week.

In Tuesday's victory, the ’Cats came up with three runs in the first, added a run in each of the next four innings, and finished it off early on the 10-run rule with three more runs in the sixth.

"I love this team. It's a great group of kids," said Woods Cross coach Trevor Amicone. "A lot of people will ask me what do you think about your team, what do you think about your guys, and it's cliché or it's cheesy or whatever, but I'll tell ya in 20 years because we care in this program about who you become as a human being. And we know that great human beings make great baseball players, and that's what we're trying to do.

"We've got some really good kids, and it's a lot of fun. They're fun to coach — fun to coach and fun to watch.

"Al has had a monster year and it's been a really special season for Al," he said of Johnson, who recorded 11 strikeouts and raised his record to 7-2 with the win. "The hay's in the barn, and today was just the result of a lot of hard work over a long period of time, especially for Al. Al was like a microcosm of our team's result today because it was, for him, a lot of work over the offseason, a lot of work over the last nine months. And today and the whole season have just been the result of that, showing how that hard work paid off."

Johnson said one of the keys to the Wildcats' magical season has been their team unity and togetherness.

"Our strength is being a team," he said. "I'd argue to say we're the most 'team' in the state. We're all really close with each other and we're really good friends. We came out and stuck to the process, and we've been doing it all along, every day.

"Our pitch-calling and knowing that I have a defense behind me has helped a lot. It's great to be able to throw a strike and know that they're going to hit the ball and (the defense) will make plays."

The Wildcats certainly made all the plays Tuesday — in the field, on the mound and at the plate.

In their three-run first, speedy center-fielder Brady Childs beat out an infield hit, and catcher Brandon Wagstaff doubled to center to bring him home. First baseman Jordan Lewis then slashed an RBI double of his own down the right-field line before coming around to score on an infield error.

In the second inning, DH Chase Miller and third baseman Tyrus Draper had infield hits, and Childs brought a run home with a perfectly placed sacrifice bunt.

Lewis led off the third with a triple to the gap in right-center and eventually scored on a passed ball. In the fourth, right fielder Andrew Peterson had a bunt single, stole second, went to third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch. The ’Cats added another run in the fifth when Mitch Dalley and Beano Randolph each singled and advanced a base on a bobbled ball in the outfield. Dalley then came home by beating out the throw home.

In the sixth, Draper singled, stole second and scored on Wagstaff's single up the middle. After a walk to Lewis, Johnson lofted a high fly ball to deep center field, bringing home the last two runs to end it.

"I actually thought it was gonna be caught," Johnson said with a smile about his walk-off double.

"It was a good day. It was fun," said Lewis, who had a run-scoring double, a triple and scored three times. "It felt great to win the region. This is the third one that we've gotten since I've been here, so it's been fun to continue on that tradition.

"I think it'd be fun to make a deep run in the state tournament. We have the team (to do it), but it's just all about who gets hot and that's what we're looking like. But we've just got to keep working hard and just keep coming to work every day. We've just got to keep our foot on the gas and just keep going and get better for state."

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Coach Amicone agreed that even though the Wildcats have been bludgeoning their league opponents all season long, there's still room for improvement.

"We've gotta get better. We've got to find ways to get better," he said. "So we have to make sure that the next two days, we're not letting up. We don't want to take the foot off of the gas before the state tournament, so we've gotta find ways to get better.

"We try and win every moment, and that's from winning every pitch to winning every inning. And that's maybe the best part of today is we won every inning. That's what we've been trying to do all year; that's the goal all the time, and that's what we're going to try and just keep doing for the rest of the week and the rest of the year."

EMAIL: rhollis@desnews.com

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