High school softball: Grantsville Cowboys win sixth title in 7 years

Six championships in the past seven years. That’s what the Grantsville Cowboys softball team was just able to accomplish.

How fitting that the sixth championship came on the heels of being announced as the No. 6 seed in the 3A tournament.

Grantsville felt all tournament that they were under seeded. They felt penalized for playing multiple out-of-state opponents along with multiple teams in higher classifications in Utah.

The Cowboys only had four seniors to guide the vast amount of freshmen and sophomores on the team. But it all worked out as Grantsville went through the 3A tournament, not losing a single game along the way.

They defeated the No. 3-seeded South Summit Wildcats 15-0, the No. 2-seeded North Sanpete Hawks 6-4 and the No. 1-seeded Emery Spartans in back-to-back games 17-11 and 11-8 to win the championship.

The championship did not come easy. During the last three games, they found themselves down multiple runs at various points.

But each time, the Cowboys were able to rally and achieve victory. No win came harder than the one on Saturday in the championship round, after they found themselves down 4-0 in just the second inning.

“We have a mentally tough team. We knew that we had to just keep chipping away at the lead and we knew we’d find ourselves back into the game,” coach Tony Cloward said. “It starts with pitching. Good coaches have good players and it starts with pitching and the Bytheways have been able to provide that for us during this run. ... They were amazing, they can hit too, which is amazing. This team is so young but might be one of the most (talented) teams that I have ever had the privilege to coach.”

They did indeed keep chipping away, as they were able to secure a run in the top of the third inning to reduce the deficit to three runs.

But after Emery was able to add a run in the bottom of the third inning, the Cowboys decided to do more than chip away at the lead. They erased it completely, scoring four runs in the top of the fifth inning to tie the game at five runs apiece, thanks to an error by Emery that brought in a runner from third, as well as a flurry of singles by Avery Lee, Kira Hart and Payten Bytheway.

After that burst of scoring, each team traded runs, with Grantsville scoring in the fifth and Emery in the sixth. The team ultimately headed to extra innings.

Both Grantsville and Emery scored one run in the eighth, so the teams had to play a ninth to finally determine a winner.

Lately, it seems that the top of the last inning is when the Cowboys thrive. They scored five runs in the top of the seventh to beat North Sanpete 6-4 and scored eight in the top of the seventh to beat Emery in the semifinals 17-11.

On Saturday, the ninth inning was the moment that Grantsville has been fighting for all tournament long. The Cowboys went on to score four runs in the top of the inning to take a commanding 11-7 lead.

Emery was able to score one run, but it was not enough. Grantsville was able to clinch its second-straight title and sixth in the past seven years.

Payten Bytheway was all over the place for the Cowboys, playing first base and then coming in to pitch the last six innings of the game. She went 2 for 5 from the plate with three RBIs and a double, while also adding four strikeouts. She allowed only five hits and no earned runs, keeping Emery at bay.

“It felt so good to be able to help contribute so much to my team today Coming into the game today, I knew we could do it. We are young, but I feel like having a younger team made it easier to not get discouraged during the low times of the season,” Bytheway said.