PAYSON — For a baseball team with little post-season experience, the Payson Lions showed a lot of composure Tuesday in their 9-8 come-from-behind, first-round victory over the Pine View Panthers.

After falling behind 8-1 through 4 1/2 innings, the Lions scratched back with two runs in the fifth, four runs in the sixth and two more in the seventh to advance in the winners bracket of the 4A baseball playoffs. They'll face Mountain Crest on the road Wednesday in round two.

The Lions, who scored their final six runs with two outs, mounted their charge behind clutch hitting, clutch pitching, some good fortune and a little trickery. The trickery part put the final dagger in the Panthers as the winning run scored with two outs in the bottom of the seventh on a walk-off delayed double steal.

"We had the momentum and figured that they had to be feeling some pressure, so we decided to go for it knowing we had nothing to lose. At the very least, we thought they would let us have that extra base," Payson coach Shawn Johnson said.

With the scored tied 8-8 and runners on first and third, Payson's Jace Harmon was fooled on a Marcus Littlewood curveball. So on the next pitch, after strike two was called, the runner on first took off and stopped half way between first and second. Pine View catcher Chance Jones, a little confused by the play, threw to second base but no one was covering. The runner from third scored as the ball bounced into center field.

"We've used that play a few times before, and sometimes it's a play that's overused, but every now and then it works pretty good," Johnson said.

Regardless, Payson had several big plays that put the Lions in position to pull out the victory after the Panthers, on home runs from Jones and Littlewood, and two doubles from Kyler Walker, appeared to be in command with a seven-run margin.

The Lions began the comeback when Spensor Smith knocked in two runs with a one-out single in the fifth. An inning later, Colton Cannon slapped a two-out double to center to score one and make it an 8-4 game. Back-to-back walks loaded the bases for Brady Loveless, who blistered a bases-clearing double to the left-field gap to trim the score to 8-7.

Pine View was poised to regain control of the game by loading the bases in the top of the seventh with no outs on a walk, a hit batter and an error. But Lion lefty Tyson Memmott, who fanned 13 on the day, struck out three straight Pine View batters to end the threat.

"All they had to do there was put a ball in play and they score one or two, but Tyson really buckled down and put out the fire. And when it looked like they were going to take back the momentum, we ended up having it going into our final at bat," Johnson said.

The Panthers were still in good position to hang on in the bottom half when a walk was sandwiched between two strikeouts. And Pine View could have ended it, but a two-out grounder to third was bobbled, keeping the Lions alive. Cannon, who went 4-for-5 with three doubles, then made the Panthers pay for the miscue when he lined an 0-1 curve ball to center, knotting the game 8-8 and pushing the eventual winning run to third base.

E-MAIL: jimr@desnews.com