5A high school softball: Bingham takes thrilling win

TAYLORSVILLE — It was one of those, "Oh no, don't do that. Yes!" plays that put the Bingham Miners squarely into the 5A softball state championship game.

With the game tied 1-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning for the Miners and the Viewmont Vikings and Bingham runner Meghan Herrick standing on third base with one out, Herrick thought she saw something that turned out not to be true.

"The ball went to the pitcher, and I thought it was going to go through. Then I saw it in her hand, and I freaked out a little," said Herrick after she got caught off third base.

"I've had a bit of practice in rundowns, and I just did what I'd worked on all season long," said Herrick as she put the Viewmont defenders into a tough rundown situation and finished things off by running past the Viewmont catcher, who reached out to tag her but missed. That allowed Herrick to touch home plate and score the game-winning run and give Bingham the 2-1 victory Wednesday.

"I didn't know what to think. I was just so excited. I was totally sure I'd scored. I knew she didn't touch me. I tried to look up to see the call, but my teammates were all over me," said Herrick in breathless excitement as her team is now guaranteed a spot in the championship game Thursday night at 5 p.m. at Valley Complex. The Miners will play either Spanish Fork or Viewmont in the final for the trophy.

And this year they don't have to defeat that team twice to take the title.

But Herrick's rundown between third and home was not exactly part of the game plan, said Bingham coach Mikki Jackson.

"We had just discussed what not to do, and that was it. But luckily Meghan can put herself into difficult positions and can get herself out of them," said Jackson after noting that sometimes it's nice to be lucky.

The game was a definite pitchers' duel all the way through, and even when Bingham broke through with the first run after Whitney Lewis reached base on a single and was bunted to second by Shanna Painter. A pair of errors allowed the first run of the game to score, and that run looked as if it would hold up through most of the contest.

But then Viewmont pitcher Shelbi Tyteca led things off for the Vikings in the top of the seventh.

"I was dreading that last at bat against Tyteca because she's so mentally tough and she's such a great hitter," said Jackson, who had plenty of reason to dread that at bat.

Tyteca calmly stepped to the plate and launched a deep ball over the fence in center field, tying things up for herself on the long ball.

"We've been there in games with emotions this intense, and we know how to run it. We've been through that stuff before, and it's no big deal. We've got so much heart, and we've come back in several games now," said Jackson, who was impressed with how calmly her team remained after giving up the tying home run.

And even a little mental error couldn't stop the Miners when Herrick simply found a way to turn that mistake into a game-winner.

e-mail: jolsen@desnews.com