Video replay of both semifinals games
OREM — If it looked as if Valley had been preparing to play Piute for a long time, then you'd be right.
About a year after being ousted by Thunderbirds in the 1A state baseball championship, the Buffaloes exacted their revenge in the semifinal round on Friday, advancing to the championship with a 5-2 win.
Leading the way was junior pitcher McClain Roundy, who pitched a complete game for Valley, while providing an RBI single in the top of the third inning, which gave the Buffs an early 2-0 lead.
"He did an amazing job. That is an amazing game that he just pitched," said Valley coach Joseph Sorensen. "We had all the confidence going in that he could do it, and he stepped up big today."
As for Roundy, he revealed his team had been preparing for Piute for quite a while.
"Not to overlook any of the other teams, but we've been preparing for this team for three or four weeks," Roundy said. "We knew they were going to get here, we knew they'd pitch the guy they did, and we've just been visualizing this game with every practice. So to finally beat them — it feels real good."
Valley got off to a great start on Danny Goulding's RBI single in the top of the first inning.
Roundy then added his RBI single in the top of the third, and Garrett Spencer added another an inning later, stretching the lead to 3-1 after four.
Valley's box score was filled with singles — 14 of them altogether, without a single extra-base hit.
"We've struggled a little bit hitting lately, so we cranked up our pitching machine a bit this week, and it helped a lot," Sorensen said. "We had hits in every inning, I believe, so that shows how well everyone in the lineup did. We needed that today and got it."
Piute did cause some trouble for Roundy on occasion, but time and again he'd buck up and pitch himself out of tough situations.
"Everything was working for me today," Roundy said. "This team hadn't lost since last year, so we needed everything to be working well, and fortunately I was able to pitch well enough and my teammates — all of them really stepped up."
Valley's final RBI single came off the bat of Gavin Hoyt, with Spencer scoring the final run in the top of the sixth on an RBI groundout.
With the win, Valley advances to the 1A state championship game, where it will meet up with Panguitch on Saturday, who defeated Bryce Valley 7-3 in the other semifinal.
"We're excited. We've worked hard to get to this point and hopefully we can play well again (Saturday) and get ourselves a championship," Sorensen said.