West Ridge hopes to ride pitching depth to 1A crown

West Ridge's pitching battery of Wade Whitely and Anthony Turnbull has been superb throughout the regular season, but that's not why coach Dave Brock feels confident on the eve of the 1A state baseball tournament.

Rather, it's the pair of pitchers he's got behind the two stars.

Third starter Aaron Scarborough has given No. 2 West Ridge lots of quality outings and Alex Nelson's been solid at his closer spot.

Behind those four pitchers, the Eagles hope for success in the 1A state tournament, which begins this afternoon with four quarterfinal games.

The semifinals and final will be held this weekend at Utah Valley State.

"Having that kind of battery is huge," said Brock. "Most (1A) teams don't have two (quality) pitchers, and I have four."

That pitching was a driving force behind West Ridge's Region 17 championship, which was the academy's second league title in three years.

"(Winning region) is a goal we had from the beginning," said Brock. "I think they bought into what we wanted to do and just executed."

Turnbull, who is at catcher whenever he's not pitching, has played particularly well for the Eagles.

"Turnbull is definitely the best catcher out there (in 1A)," said Brock.

West Ridge fought all the way with St. Joseph for the Region 17 title. Both were tied with one loss until the Eagles beat St. Joseph 5-3 last week.

As it turn out, West Ridge's only league defeat came when the academy played the Jayhawks earlier in the season, and that game seemed to jump start the Eagles.

"I hate to use the cliche of one game at a time," said Brock, "but that's how we've been doing it."

On paper, No. 3 Wasatch Academy's home contest against No. 4 St. Joseph is the best matchup of the opening round.

The Jayhawks defeated Wasatch Academy 12-11 back in the preseason.

St. Joseph's talented pitchers Carl Ward, Dan Stoecki and Eli Kenny will attempt to slow down the Tigers' talented offensive firepower. Wasatch Academy has been anchored from the plate by Adam Smith and Gordon Deason, among others.

1A baseball rankings

1. Panguitch

2. West Ridge

3. Wasatch Academy

4. St. Joseph

5. Wayne

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