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Show Warriors beat Wildcats to end fine ball season By TOM HARALDSEN TAYLORS VILLE In the end, though the Woods Cross baseball base-ball team lost the battle, they may have won the war. Looking for the respect of others, and having to prove all year that they belonged, the Wildcats ended a fine season with a classy finish during Thursday's Thurs-day's 9-2 loss to Taylorsville. The loss ended Woods Cross' season at 9-8, while the defending state champions advance into the first round of the state 4-A double-elimination double-elimination tournament Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at Ken Price Park. Thursday's game matched two of the state's top pitchers-Wildcat Mike Smith, who has been a mainstay main-stay for Woods Cross all year, and Taylorsyille's Mark Tolbert, who has never lost a game since entering enter-ing the Warrior program three years ago. It promised to be a pitching duel, and it was, until the disasterous third. Smith had set down the hardhitting hard-hitting Warriors fairly easily to that point, having given up just one hit. But in the bottom of the third, Warrior first baseman Steve Wooley reached base on an infield error. The ninth batter in the lineup, centerfielder Scott War-burger, War-burger, then attempted a sacrifice bunt that was dropped by a diving Wildcat fielder. It was ruled a hit, and put runners on first and second. Leadoff man Kevin Quinn then tried to do the same. His bunt down the third base line was fielded cleanly, but the throw to first sailed into the right field bullpen, and Wooley scored to make it 1-0. With runners on second and third and no one out, Troy Leavitt received an singled to center, only the second "real" hit in the inning. Mike Brown forced Leatherwood at second, but Wooley singled, and Warburger singled to right. The ball was misplayed for still another error, and both Brown and Wooley scored. It was 8-0 after three. Tolbert, meanwhile, was avoiding avoid-ing trouble. Woods Cross got two men aboard in the fourth, but Tolbert Tol-bert struck out both Von Elkins and Shawn Cosper to end the inning. in-ning. Smith pitched out of a jam himself in the fourth, after the first two Warriors reached on singles. . He forced Roberts to ground out, and got Peterson and Leatherwood to pop up. In the sixth, the Wildcats, and Smith in particular, showed their savy. With two out, Roberts sent another fastball over the wall at almost the same spot as his grand slam, making it 9-0. Under high school rules, another run by the Warriors would have ended the game. Peterson then walked, went to second on a single by Leatherwood, Leath-erwood, and both moved up on a wild pitch. But with his back to the wall, Smith struck out Brown swinging to force a seventh inning. Richard Juluson led off the seventh with a sharp single to center. cen-ter. That brought up Elkins, who took a lot of sting out of the game for himself and his teammates with a long two-run homer onto 5400 South to make it 9-2. With one out, Bret Rogers kept the rally going with a single, and Jerrell Jensen followed with a single. But the rally ended as Tolbert got Smith to fly out and struck out Matt Watson. Still, the Wildcats showed a lot of class in going the distance with Taylorsville. intentional walk to load the bases and set up a force play. But a pass ball allowed everyone to move up, and Warburger scored to make it 2-0. Tolbert then was intentionally walked, bringing up cleanup hitter Mark Roberts. Roberts jumped on a fastball and rocketed a grand slam home run to deep left-center, making it 6-0. It proved to be more than enough for the Warriors, but they weren't done. After Smith struck out catcher Scott Peterson, Jeff Leatherwood |