Spring break will be a bit more enjoyable for the Grantsville softball team as it relishes its second straight victory over defending 4A champion and county rival Tooele.

Grantsville pushed across the only run of the game Tuesday in the top of the eighth inning when pinch runner Summer Parks scored on a sacrifice grounder by Annie Young to give the Cowboys a 1-0 victory.

Tooele is touted as the top team in 4A by Utah media outlets and Grantsville is regarded as the best in the 3A ranks. Both teams come equipped with superb pitchers in Mattie Snow for Tooele and Natalie Peterson for Grantsville.

Those two fastball specialists showed their stuff on Wednesday combining for 21 strikeouts. Snow fanned 13 and Peterson recorded eight strikeouts.

Hits were on the endangered species list in this game. Tooele managed three singles and the Cowboys did not record a hit.

After seven innings of scoreless softball, the International Tie-breaker Rule was needed to give each team a chance at scoring and ending the game before the sun went down.

Grantsville managed to make good use of the rule, while Tooele came within inches of tying the game in its half of the eighth.

Parks was awarded second base to start the eighth inning, stole third and then scored on the grounder by Young.

In the bottom of the eighth, Tooele’s Allie Alverson was awarded second base and went to third on a fielder’s choice. Snow bunted with Alverson on the move to home plate on a squeeze attempt, but Peterson fielded the ball, flipped it home to Grantsville catcher Krista Taylor for the second out on a close play. An infield pop-out ended the game.

“We struck out way too many times, but I thought our players played great on defense. In fact, I could not have been more pleased with the way we played defensively. And then we executed in the tie-breaker. The girls always believe they can win if they do their jobs,” said Grantsville coach Heidi Heath.

“The game was intense. It was a good experience for us because you can’t practice those kind of things. We were hearing that Tooele is a bit down with young players. But we weren’t buying it; those young players are great players and Mattie (Snow) is a great pitcher. I thought both teams played well.”

The coach said her ace on the mound Peterson was feeling a bit sick during the game.

“She wasn’t feeling very well and she threw a couple of illegal pitches by jumping off the mound and she was feeling the nerves, but she just did a great job for us,” Heath said.

“Give Grantsville a lot of credit. They played a great game and are worthy of their top ranking in 3A,” said Tooele coach Steve Snow. “They would be my pick to win the 3A title. Grantsville and Bingham are the two best teams we’ve faced this year. Natalie Peterson threw an incredible game for them. It was a fun game with a playoff atmosphere and good crowd.”

“We didn’t do the little things it takes to win close games,” the Tooele coach said. “I told the girls it’s those little things you do that end up making a big difference in games against great teams.”

Tooele squandered an opportunity to score in the first inning when a runner was picked off at third base.

Another Tooele runner reached third base in the second, but Peterson struck out the next two batters to end the inning.

Grantsville rallied with two outs in the third inning when Laura Snow beat out a mishandled ball in the infield and ended up at second base. She went to third on a passed ball, but Snow got the next batter to ground out.

After the first three innings both pitchers found their groove and neither team could advance a runner past second base during regulation play. Most innings ended quickly with three up and three down.

Tooele’s Jordon McMain managed a bunt single in the third inning, Abby McIntyre recorded an infield single in the fifth and Whitney Holt belted a grounder through the middle of the infield in the sixth for the third and final hit of the game.

Gantsville does not play again until Wednesday, April 15 with a game at Ben Lomond, and Tooele travels to Springville on Tuesday, April 14 for its next game.

Mark Watson: mwatson@tooeletranscript.com