High school softball: Grantsville wins three-peat with rout of Emery in 3A championship

For much of the last decade, 3A softball has been dominated by the Grantsville Cowboys.

Grantsville won four consecutive state championships between 2017-2021, and the Cowboys have just completed another three-peat with a dominant 11-1 mercy rule win over Emery in the 3A state championship.

“We just love softball in Grantsville,” said Grantsville head coach Tony Cloward. “I don’t know how it happened or where it happened, but softball is something that we really enjoy and appreciate and do in Grantsville.

“Not only Grantsville, but Tooele County has been known for good softball. It just happens to be that it’s Grantsville’s turn right now to be the dominant program and it’s just a wonderful thing.”

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The defense was the star of the show for the Cowboys Saturday as they gave up only one run in the championship game. It was a big difference from their quarterfinal with the Spartans, wherein Grantsville squeaked out a 9-8 win.

Pitching was a major asset for Grantsville with Hayden Bytheway throwing eight strikeouts in the win. Bytheway opened the game with three consecutive strikeouts and made sure if Emery wanted to get on base, it would have to earn it.

“I can’t speak enough about Hayden Bytheway. She’s the real deal,” Cloward said. “We went to her, we rode her as our ace in the circle, and then she gives us that at-bats, too. I mean, she just does it all.”

Bytheway got things going early at the plate, as she hit a home run in the first inning with two runners on base to give Grantsville an early 3-0 lead.

“I feel like I had a lot of confidence because it’s so early in the game and I just went out there and give it my all,” Bytheway said. “I think we had more motivation because we didn’t want it to be as stressful as last time, and I’m glad we pulled through.”

Emery had a chance to get the game close early with a runner on third, but the Cowboys’ defense once again played tight and got out of the inning without surrendering a run.

Grantsville only continued to extend its lead, especially in the third inning when it ran up the lead to 8-0 with five different hitters all recording RBIs.

Emery’s lone run came in the top of the fifth inning on an RBI single from Kali Jensen, but Grantsville put the game away in the bottom of the sixth inning when Payten Bytheway hit a double that got two runners in and Addison Durfee hit the walk-off single to get Payten Bytheway home and secure the 11-1 mercy rule win.

Durfee finished the game with three RBIs and a double.

“This was their goal. They wanted to go out with the three-peat and our seniors are incredible,” Cloward said. “Two (seniors) only really play the majority of the minutes. The other two are very supportive, they play role positions and our seniors have been really the glue of our team all year.”