For any Park City High School baseball fans who left Tuesday’s game out of frustration with a lopsided score in the fourth inning, they missed one of the Miners most prolific efforts of the season, as they fought back to beat Wasatch 15-12 at the Park City High School field.
Following all of the hype and excitement surrounding the Judge game, the Miners came out a bit sluggish and it showed.
“We thought it was already in the bag,” said catcher Parker Morin.
But Wasatch had other ideas, quickly taking control of the early innings.
The Wasps scored a run in the first inning and continued to take advantage of some of the holes in the Miners pitching, resulting in a grand slam by Cody Remund in the second inning.
The Miners looked helpless, down 7-1, until the fourth inning when their scoring finally broke loose. They scored a run quickly and then, after two outs, the spree began. Before the Wasps could finally get the third out, the Miners scored a total of 11 runs. But the Wasps weren’t ready to accept defeat. They came back in the later innings to score five more runs, including another home run by Remund. The Miners scored three more runs of their own and were eventually able to put the game away in the last inning, stopping the Wasps at 12 runs to their 15.
“It was an ugly win,” said Park City head coach Howard Hoyt after the game.
Part of the trouble with the Miners’ pitching was the mound. The height of the dirt had been readjusted, making it harder to get the ball to the plate.
But Hoyt also suspected that the pitchers just weren’t ready for Wasatch. Alex Thomas got the start after pitching well the last time the Miners faced Wasatch, but was pulled in the top of the fourth after the Wasps took the big lead. Chris Shapard came in for one inning and Garrett Tsao closed out the win.
“Garrett came in and shut them down,” Hoyt said.
But pitching wasn’t the only reason that the Miners got into trouble early. The defense also failed to back up the pitchers, missing a number of ground balls and committing other errors.
“Our defense played the worst game of the year,” Morin said.
“I told Matt [Strader, assistant coach], this is what I was afraid of,” said Hoyt. “The good news is, they came back and did it on their own.”
And the rally in the fourth inning truly was a team effort. Every batter was able to at least reach base, if not bring a Park City runner home.
‘They feed off of each other,” Hoyt said. “They get a break and heat up.”
The Miners will now have to continue that fire for the remainder of the season if they want to stay in first place in the region. Uintah lost to Judge this week, which puts the Utes in second and Judge in third. Park City sees both of them next week and will have to play their best ball to beat them.
“We’re in the driver’s seat,” Hoyt said, but adding that Uintah scares him a little.
The games will be played within three days of each other and both starting pitchers Marshall Crawford and Dakota Matherly — should be available. Hoyt said if the Miners can continue to play the cohesive ball they played in the second game against Judge and the second half of the Wasatch game, then they should be able to pull off the wins.
“We seem to be playing together,” Morin said. “We’re not just relying on some guys to get the job done.”
The Miners will host Uintah Thursday in a doubleheader beginning at 2:30 p.m. and then travel to play Judge Saturday at St. Ann’s field at 1 p.m.