The regular season may not have gone exactly as planned.
But Gate City didn’t have that problem in its postseason opener Monday night at Halliwell Park.
The Grays took Game 1 one of the best-of-three series against The Lab out of Logan, Utah in the opening round of the Northern Utah League playoffs.
“I think it just speaks to the guys in the clubhouse. They’re resilient and kind of have been all year,” Gate City coach Rhys Pope said. “Going from not starting off the season so well with the record and fighting and clawing back to get to .500 to just being here right now, I think is huge.”
The Grays (13-12) had to once again fight back Monday.
They found themselves down 3-1 going into the bottom of the fourth inning. But Trei Hough’s 1-out, RBI single to right field, kickstarted a three-run fourth inning themselves. Josh Myers then tied the game at 3-3 by stealing home on a wild pitch before Brayden Pieper gave Gate City the lead for good. His line-drive RBI single to center field proved to be all of the offense the Grays needed. However, Tyler Vance gave them some insurance runs anyways with his two-run double on a hard ground ball to left field in the fifth inning.
“I think we were a little bit nervous through those first three innings. I think you could even feel it in the whole stadium. The fans were a little nervous. You could kind of feel it in our dugout a little bit,” Pope said. “But then we kind of just took control from then on and didn’t look back.
“Them going up 3-1, shows again how resilient our group truly is, that even in a big-time game like this, you can still punch back and get runs across and keep yourself in the game.”
Easton Watterson was the only Gate City player with more than one hit at two. Vance and Hough both drove in two runs apiece. JD Gunderson recorded a hit in his seventh straight game. Since making his season debut for the Grays on June 25, he’s tallied a hit in every game but one.
“The first inning we go down 1-0 and then JD gets the RBI single with two outs to tie it up. So any time that dude comes up to bat, you’re expecting a hit,” Pope said. “I think he’s batting close to .500 now, which is pretty unheard of. He brings a presence to our lineup that’s pretty calming.”
But the best performance on the night arguably belonged to Slayder Watterson. He allowed just four hits and two earned runs to go along with seven strikeouts in the complete-game effort. Watterson didn’t allow a single hit for the final three innings of the game.
“The dude’s our ace and that’s why,” Pope said. “That’s why he had the ball last night. I don’t think it was truly comprehended how big that was last night because now that saves someone from having to come out of the bullpen. When you’re looking ahead into the playoffs, you’ve got the potential to play nine games in 10 days. So our guys are fresh going into tonight and tomorrow night. We can use absolutely anybody that we need to. So just an absolutely great performance by Slayder.”
The Grays beat The Lab 8-1 Tuesday night on the road for the sweep. They will now await their next opponent for the semifinal round.
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