Gate City moves within one win of first NUL championship series appearance in six years

Rhys Pope has come close to reaching the Northern Utah League championship series several times over the years.

But Gate City’s manager has lost in the semifinal round in each of the last three years. However, he’s now just one win away following his team’s 19-13 shootout victory against Logan on the road Thursday evening in Game 1 of the best-of-three series.

The Grays (15-12) haven’t reached the league’s championship series since last winning it all back in 2018.

“Oh man, I think I aged 10 years,” said Pope with a laugh. “It was a heck of a baseball game with a football score.”

It certainly was.

But it wasn’t looking that way at first. The Grays appeared like they were going to run away with it early on.

Gate City jumped out to a 9-0 lead heading into the bottom of the second inning. The Grays racked up nine of their 22 hits, which was the most this season in a Northern Utah League game.

Tyler Vance and Josh Myers were responsible for most of that offensive firepower. Vance got the barrage of offense started with his RBI single on a fly ball to right field. He then came back around for another RBI single. This time it was on a line drive to right. Meyers then stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded in the second inning and cranked Gate City’s first grand slam of the season to left field. He ended up finishing with a game-high five RBIs.

“That was a huge momentum thing right there,” Pope said. “Because going into this game, we knew that Logan was going to be able to put up runs.”

And the Royals did too.

They came storming back with 12 unanswered runs over the next four innings, capped by a five-run fifth inning. Derek Anthony completed the run with a two-out, two-run line drive to right field to all of sudden give Logan a 12-9 advantage going into the sixth inning.

But the Grays, who dropped three of four games to the Royals during the regular season, including a pair of 10-run losses just a few weeks back, responded with a rally of their own. They outscored the top-seeded Royals 10-1 over the course of the final two innings.

Six of those runs came in the top of the seventh. Gate City did so by tallying five hits, drawing two walks, a hit-by-pitch and taking advantage of an error. Slayer Watterson provided what ended up being the game-winning run on an RBI single ground ball to left field. It was one of his four hits on the night.

“If you would have told me when we were down 12-9 that, ‘Hey, you’re going to win this ball game 19-13,’ I’m not sure I would have believed you,” said Pope with a laugh. “So last night was insane. Seriously, my heart was beating a million times a minute, even for 45 minutes after the game. Then it was just an adrenaline dump and I crashed.”

Watterson’s brother Easton went a perfect 5-for-5 at the plate, including a double, and a pair of RBIs. Vance also logged four hits to go along with four RBIs. Myers added three hits and both Kolby Osborn and Kyler Spracklen drove in three runs each in the upset win.

The Grays, who didn’t even get above .500 until the penultimate game of the regular season, have now won seven of their last eight games.

“All year, from the coaching staff, to the front office, to the players in the clubhouse, we knew that we had a talented team. We just weren’t able to find the thing that clicked,” Pope said. “And I have no idea what it was. I can’t put my finger on it. But it seems like we have found that and we just gotta ride it.”

The Grays lost Game 2 16-8 Friday night. So there will now be a winner-take-all Game 3 with a spot in the Northern Utah League championship series on the line Saturday at Logan.