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OREM — The Timpanogos Timberwolves had to wait an extra day to open their home schedule.
Chase Riggs made sure the wait, even though most of it was cold, cloudy, and windy, was worth it for the sunshine waiting at the end.
The senior went 5.1 strong innings, striking out five Brighton hitters, and was aided by stout run support late to give the defending 5A champion Timberwolves all they needed in a 6-1 win over the Bengals Thursday at Timpanogos High School.
"As time goes by, you're going to see Brighton become a very good team," Timpanogos head coach and reigning NFHS Coach of the Year Kim Nelson said. "Chase came in and threw strikes, we made some plays behind him, and we had a lot better at-bats today."
Those better at-bats also came early for Timpanogos, too. Senior third baseman Brighton Tate, who finished the day 2-for-4, kicked off the scoring with an RBI triple, and then scored himself on a passed ball from Bengals starter Miles Layton to give the Timberwolves (3-3) an early 2-0 advantage in the bottom of the first inning.
"The guys before me got first-pitch fastballs," Tate said. "I knew what was coming and swung hard."
His triple would be the only extra-base hit anyone could muster until the top of the fourth inning, when Brighton (0-1) finally cracked the scoreboard on an RBI double from Braxton Biesinger.
In between those, the Bengals had a devil of a time solving Chase Riggs. The senior, who received his call to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Lisbon, Portugal, on Tuesday, kept Brighton hitters off-balance with a fastball-changeup combo that was difficult to judge. He also came one pitch shy of an immaculate inning in the top of the third, which means a pitcher strikes out the side without throwing a ball.
"We've pitched really well in the first six games we've played," Nelson said. "It was just unfortunate we haven't had the run support behind it."
It certainly seemed like deja vu Thursday, as the Timberwolves went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position prior to the fifth inning. Timpanogos scattered 7 of their 10 hits to that point without producing much offense, evoking memories of the 2-hit performance in Wednesday's 4-2 road loss at Bear River.
That's where the pitching stepped up.
After allowing the first two runners to reach base in the sixth inning, Nelson made the call to the bullpen for Orem transfer Carter Hall. Hall promptly struck out the first batter he faced, and after a passed ball on a 2-2 count moved the tying run into scoring position, Hall blew a fastball by Brighton's Riley Brown for the third strike to end the threat.
"We knew he was going to be a big-time reliever or starter for us," Riggs said. "Teams are definitely going to have to be afraid of him."
The bottom of the sixth was where the Timberwolves finally blew the game open. With a man on at second base, senior Luke Livingston, who went 3-for-4 on the day, cracked a one-out double into shallow left field to make it a 4-1 game, the first of three runs that proved to be the knockout punch. Hall put up a zero in the final inning by setting down the Bengals in order.
"I like our approach and our effort to get better at run support," Nelson said. "We haven't arrived yet, but we're getting there."
That's quite a scary thought, given the defending champions have front-loaded this year's schedule to get ready for Region 8 play. They'll have two more midweek games: Monday at home against rival Jordan and Wednesday on the road at Viewmont.
Riggs said the win was definitely needed, however, because of the difficult start to the season, especially defensively. The Timberwolves committed 12 errors total in their first six games, but did not commit a single error Thursday.
"The games we lost were because of execution issues," Tate said. "If we can continue to clean those things up, we'll be great."
