In a tightly contested back and forth battle, top-seeded Union squeezed out a victory over No. 2 Grantsville in Game 1 of their best of three 3A championship series.
Gannon Labrum and Tyson Marx were catalysts for the Union offense, each knocking in two RBIs in the victory.
On the mound, Dylan Watahomigie got the win for Union, pitching six strong innings while striking out five.
“That game had lots of ups and downs. Both teams are very competitive. Both teams know how to fight back, and when we play each other, we know it’s never over between the two teams,” said Union head coach Matt Labrum.
“You gotta fight until the last out. Grantsville is a well-coached team and they’re well disciplined. We’ve had a lot of good battles through the years, you know, and I expect the same thing tomorrow.”
Union took the lead first early by scoring a runner from third with an RBI single in the bottom of the first inning.
It took Grantsville a few innings to get settled into the game, but the Cowboys eventually scored three runs in the top of the fourth inning to take a 3-1 lead.
The Cougars didn’t waste any time though and answered immediately in the bottom half of the inning with three runs of their own to regain the lead at 4-3.
“I like how our kids showed composure. I wish we would field the ball a little better. I like how we’re never out, and they never feel like we’re out of it, and they’re willing to come back and fight for each other,” said coach Labrum.
Grantsville seemingly felt the same, as it scored two runs in the top of the sixth inning to take a 5-4 lead.
But Grantsville’s pitching started to struggle in a big way when the Union bats came up to the plate in the bottom half of the inning, and the Cougars’ plate discipline made them pay.
Union scored three runs, all on bases loaded walks, to take a 7-5 lead heading into the seventh inning.
“With our guys, we talk a lot about plate discipline and being able to hit our pitches and know what a ball and a strike is,” coach Labrum said.
“It obviously changes due to the umpire, too, so you have to adjust to the umpire zone, and I was real proud of our guys. I thought they handled that well. We fought off a lot of pitches.”
Grantsville fought until the very end, adding a run in the top of the seventh. The Cowboys also found themselves with the tying runner on third base, but Gannon Labrum came in and finished the game out on the mound for Union.
“You obviously want to get Game 1, then that kind of puts you in a better situation, but you got to come ready to go,” coach Labrum said.
“You enjoy this one for a little bit, and then we gotta be ready to go. We gotta forget about this one and move on to the next one.”