CALDWELL − It’s always a tough predicament come state tournament time.
With pitch counts, do you throw your ace out there on day one or save him for the later rounds.
Blackfoot High head baseball coach Zach Reay decided to sit Oregon State signee and MLB prospect Dax Whitney Thursday in the opening round of the Class 4A State Tournament at Vallivue High School.
The strategy worked − barely.
Senior Cole Robinson hit a walk-off single to deliver Blackfoot a 2-1 win over reigning state champion Pocatello. The Broncos (23-5) are now in the semifinal in back-to-back years and for just the third time in 14 years. They’ll play second-seeded Moscow (18-7) in the semis at 4 p.m. Friday.
“We have trust in our guys 1-4. We know we’re gonna get quality starts out of all of them,” Reay said. “We wanted to set ourselves up for later down the road. A bit of a gamble, but it paid off.”
Reay debated throwing Whitney all week, and for good reason. The senior is the likely Class 4A Player of the Year with a perfect 10-0 record, 119 strikeouts and an ERA of just .149. The soon-to-be three-time all-state player has only allowed one earned and three total runs all year.
Yet, Reay decided against it considering his squad had already 10-runned the Thunder (16-12) twice by a combined score of 22-1 during the regular season.
So he turned to his No. 3 pitcher in Peyton Taylor on his 18th birthday no less. The junior came in with a 4-1 record, a 2.33 ERA and 27 strikeouts. Taylor only found out he was getting the start on the bump two days ago.
“As soon as I heard, I was really excited, but also super nervous,” Taylor said. “But all the coaches kept telling me that they had all the confidence in the world in me. It just made me feel really good. So that’s when I knew I had to do the job.”
And he did just that.
Taylor gave the Broncos six solid innings. He had multiple runners on base with two outs in the first, second and fourth innings. But Taylor got himself out of all those jams by forcing pop outs to the outfield each and every time.
He only gave up five hits and a run, which only came about on a throwing error in the top of the seventh inning.
“He’s just a gamer,” Reay said. “No moment gets too big for him. He steps up to the occasion and he’s just a stud.”
Blackfoot scored the game’s first run in the bottom of the fourth on a dropped third strike that would have ended the inning. Pocatello catcher Martin Serrano overthrew Seth Snyder at first base. It resulted in Griffin Ross, who hit a two-out line drive triple to right field earlier in the inning, easily crossing home plate.
“That was clutch. Griffin’s been our guy all year to get us going in the bottom of our lineup,” Robinson said. “So for him to go and do that, it really sparked it for us.”
Taylor came out in the seventh inning to try for the complete game with the Broncos nursing a 1-0 lead. But he was quickly yanked after giving up a double to Serrano with no outs.
And there was no thinking about it this time around. Reay went to his stud to close it out.
“That was the plan all along,” Reay said. “If we got into any trouble we were going to go right to Dax. We’d obviously like to save him for later. But you gotta win the first one to get to the second to get to the third.”
Pocatello ended up tying the game, though. Pinch runner Nate Rogers stole both third and home after catcher Weston Layton’s overthrow to third base. But that was the extent of the damage after Whitney fanned the next three batters. Whitney only threw 16 pitches. He could have thrown 35 and still been available for Friday.
“He’s the best there is,” Taylor said. “He’s going to where he is for a reason. And all that did was just drain their confidence. They knew exactly what was going to happen.”
The miscues finally caught up with the Thunder in the bottom of the seventh. They committed two of their six errors in that crucial inning. Alex Winn had a soft hit grounder go right through his legs at second base. Blackfoot runners then ended up at second and third base after Pocatello starting pitcher Garett Keller overthrew Easton Cannon’s sac bunt to first base.
“I don’t know. We kind of hurt ourselves all year on that,” Pocatello head coach Vinnie Benavidez said. “We made some mistakes that ended up costing us. But even with those mistakes, those kids gave it everything they had. And that’s all you can ask for.”
And Robinson made them pay.
He walked it off for the Broncos on a line drive RBI to left field.
“It was definitely very nerve-racking,” Robinson said about going into the at-bat. “I just knew I had to get the ball in the air. As long as I got the ball in the air, we’re gonna win.
“It was great. I almost started crying, I was so happy. I’m not going to lie. There’s no feeling like it.”
Blackfoot will now look for a state finals appearance for the first time since 2015 − the year of its last championship.
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