High school baseball: Panguitch pounds Tabiona

SPANISH FORK— Unstoppable.

That's the way the Panguitch Bobcats played in their five-inning, 14-0 route of Tabiona in the 1A state baseball tournament on Tuesday evening, and much of it was because of the play of Brooks Leach.

Leach hit a lead-off home run in the bottom of the first inning to get the Bobcats on the board early, then did his part to shut down the Tigers' offense by striking out nine batters.

"How big is that to get a 400-foot home run from your lead off?" Panguitch coach Clint Barney said. "(Leach) is our leader. He's pitched all the big innings and he's a threat leading off. He's the figure of our team for sure."

After Leach's start, the Bobcats plated four more runs in the first inning to take a commanding lead. Tyler Brinkerhoff blasted a two-RBI double in the second inning after Tabiona errors and a sacrifice bunt from Dexter Humphreys moved runners into scoring position. The Bobcats continued to circle the bases throughout the remainder of the game, scoring one run in the third inning and five more in the fourth.

"We knew about (Tabiona pitcher Robbie) Giles coming in," Barney said. "We fired up the pitching machine and our coaches threw as hard as they could all week to get ready for his fast ball."

The preparations paid off as the Bobcats recorded 11 hits in their only outing against Giles.

The Panguitch defense faced little trouble in keeping the Tigers scoreless. Tabiona only managed three hits on the night, all of which didn't come until the final two innings.

After capturing the early lead, "it was only a matter of throwing strikes. We wanted to make them hit the ball and not put them on with walks," Barney said. "Our defense did a good job tonight."

Humphreys was 3-for-3 on the night and drove in two runs for the Bobcats. Brinkerhoff was 2-for-3 with four RBIs.

Panguitch moves on to face Intermountain Christian in the semifinals on Friday in the 2 p.m. game at UVU.

e-mail: sthomas@desnews.com