American Legion baseball: Taylorsville takes tourney title

KEARNS — Taylorsville entered the championship round of the American Legion Baseball Tournament knowing that West had huge bats resting in the middle of the lineup. It had seen first-hand what happens when teams make pitching mistakes against the Panthers in a lopsided defeat early in the year.

Although the Warriors didn't contain the Panthers' heavy hitters completely, they limited the damage on the long balls and used savvy base running to capture the championship 5-4 at Kearns High School Saturday.

"All these kids are younger. We had three guys on the team last year and they showed a lot of leadership. We made some mistakes, we didn't play a perfect game, but we kept battling," said T-Ville skipper Jake Brown. "It was a total team effort; we had contributions from everyone on the team throughout the week. I'm just really proud of them."

With the win, Taylorsville qualifies for the Western Regionals in California, which get under way Thursday.

In the top of the first, it looked as if West was about to light a wildfire on offense with an opening-pitch home run to right by Nico Soliz.

However, as they would do the entire game, the Warriors got out of the inning by only surrendering that one run.

"They're a bigger hitting team than we were — we had to hit singles," Brown said. "We told our pitcher that, 'Hey they're gonna hit some; long as they're one-run home runs, we've still got a chance.' "

The Panthers later cushioned their lead to 2-0 with a stand-up RBI double by Max Ujituoa, but Taylorsville immediately responded with a run-scoring sacrifice fly in the bottom half of the inning.

"They just stayed with it. They just keep competing. (West got) a run in the first inning on a monster home run, and we just kept on battling. That's what I'm really proud of," Brown said of his team.

"West kicked our butt during the year. (My team) could have come in here just afraid, and they didn't do that. It's as proud of a team as I've been."

West unleashed another long ball by Chance Abrath in the third inning to push the score to 3-1.

In the bottom half of the inning, Taylorsville yet again retaliated. With the bases loaded, Hayden Heugly slapped an RBI single to pull the Warriors within one. The following batter, Jackson Roper, notched things up at 3-3 with a hot shot past shortstop.

Roper was later named the tournament's MVP.

The Warriors took their first lead in the fourth inning with an RBI double down the third-base line by Kyle Hoffman.

West eventually pulled even with another home run, this time by Tory Ulibarri — who was honored as the top home run hitter in the tournament — before the Warriors took the lead for good on a hit and run.

Email: tphibbs@desnews.com