High school softball: Pioneers slip past Braves in opening-round 4A battle

LEHI — Ideally the first round of the state tournament is not when one favorite to win it all takes on another team that's in the same boat. But that's exactly the position Bountiful and Lehi found themselves mired in when the 4A softball tournament got underway Wednesday. After all, when 10 favorites start a 16-team tournament, some will have to face off in the first round.

The two highly-touted teams had to put off their meeting one day because heavy rain had turned the Lehi field into a lake on Tuesday. But a lot of hard work had the field ready for play the next day, and the highly-anticipated matchup began. By the time it was over, the Pioneers squeaked away with a 2-1 victory and a trip into the winners' bracket of the second round.

"We knew we were up against a tough team because they came from a very tough region," Lehi coach Leslee Warr said after snagging the first-round victory and setting up a second-round matchup against Springville today.

In fact, four teams from Region 6 are among those considered to have a chance to win the state title, with the Braves being one of those four despite having their starting pitcher out for awhile at the end of the season with a sprained ankle.

"They have a great short game, slappers and plenty of speed. We knew we had to play solid defense," said Warr, whose team played a great defensive game, committing just one error. But Bountiful didn't give much back, with only one error of its own.

The Pioneers went the extra mile, too, with catcher Brianne McBride throwing out three Bountiful runners trying to steal bases. And Bountiful pulled off a pretty nice trick in the bottom of the sixth in making the Lehi runner believe the catcher had overthrown the pitcher and lost the ball into center field. The quick throw to third base after all the excitement snared the third out of the inning.

The Pioneers also smacked three doubles in the contest off the bats of McBride, Whitney Cook and Aly White.

Bountiful drew first blood in the top of the first after Kelsey Simmonds and Heather Stucki strung a pair of singles together, with Stucki picking up the RBI.

But Lehi wasn't about to let the Braves keep that slim lead for long as they evened it up in the bottom of the first on a pair of singles by White and Kelli Joe Jenkins and a sacrifice fly by Annie Nielson, who brought White home with the fly ball to center field.

The game remained all tied up at 1-1 until the Lehi half of the third inning, when Jenkins ripped a single up the middle and McBride doubled her home with two outs on the scoreboard. The run turned out to be the game-winner as the two teams' pitchers and defenses stayed solid and took over the rest of the way.

Now the Pioneers go on to meet a Springville team they defeated 3-1 last week.

"I don't know if that's going to help us or hurt us," admitted Warr of the late-season warmup game.

The Braves fall into the one-loss bracket and will take on Mountain Crest in the second round.

e-mail: jolsen@desnews.com