The third year was the charm for the Tooele softball team in its series with the Grantsville Cowboys.

After losing a pair of heartbreaking one-run games in 2008 and 2009, the Buffaloes edged the Cowboys 2-1 on Thursday.

Previous to 2008, the high-powered Buffaloes dominated the series with Grantsville, but the Cowboys came out on top the past two seasons behind the pitching of Natalie Peterson as a freshman and a sophomore.

Once again, Peterson threw an exceptional game and was matched all the way by Tooele’s ace Mattie Snow. On Thursday, both pitchers allowed only two hits.

Peterson struck out 13 batters and Snow fanned nine.

“Natalie pitched a good game against us again. She’s done that the last three years. It was good to finally get a win against her,” said Tooele coach Steve Snow.

The Buffaloes scrambled for a pair of unearned runs in the first inning and the two scores proved to be enough behind the dominating pitching of Snow.

Snow led off the game in the batter’s box and laid down a sneaky bunt and beat the throw to first base. A pair of passed balls on Grantsville put Darian Rael, pinch running for Snow, at third base and she later scored on an error.

Cheyella Meyers reached first in the same inning when she was hit by a pitch. She also was able to move around the base paths to score on the errors.

Grantsville committed four errors in the game compared to one for Tooele.

The Cowboys almost pulled off another dramatic come-from-behind win when Melissa Baird ripped a two-out RBI double over the head of the Tooele center field to score Kelsi Wells in the bottom of the seventh.

Snow was able to get the next batter to ground out to second to end the game.

Along with strong pitching, there were some superb defensive plays in the game.

One of those plays came in the first inning when Tooele’s Marissa Mendenhall ripped a ball to left field and it was tracked down and caught by Grantsville’s Chelsea Dalton.

Tooele threatened again to score in the top of the second when Whitney Holt singled up the middle with one out. She stole second and third. But Peterson got the next batter to pop out and registered a strike out for the third out of the inning.

Snow struck out the side in the bottom of the second.

Tooele advanced runners as far as second base in the third inning.

Snow walked and a sacrifice bunt put pinch runner Rael at second with one out. Meyers walked and the Buffs had runners at first and second with one out. Grantsville was able to force out the runner at third on a grounder and the threat ended when Peterson fanned a batter to get the third out.

Tooele put another runner on in the fourth when Hadli Sorenson beat out a ground ball. Sorenson stole second and third but was left there when Peterson sent two batters back to the dugout with a pair of strikeouts.

The Buffaloes came up with a superb play on defense to start the bottom of the fourth when Megan McClimans ran down a hard liner off the bat of Grantsville’s leadoff hitter Laura Snow.

Tooele scored another strong defensive play from shortstop Meyers in the bottom of the fifth when she gunned down Dalton on a close play at first base.

With Snow cruising on the mound, Tooele tried to give itself some breathing room in the top of the seventh. With one out, Cheyenne Hogsted reached first base on an error and advanced to second on a stolen base. Leadoff hitter Snow was at the plate engaged in a battle with Peterson. Snow worked the count to full and Peterson caught her looking at a called strike three for the second out.

Still with a runner at second, Brooke Slade smashed a ball to deep left and again Dalton tracked it down to end the top of the seventh with Tooele leading 2-0.

Baird’s two-out double to bring home Wells made for an exciting seventh inning. But the rally stopped there when the Cowboys could not bring her home.

“I thought we would be a little better from the plate,” Snow said. “Our kids were a little uptight in the game and not making good selections by swinging at rise balls and not laying off the high pitches.”

The Cowboys have a huge task ahead on Wednesday when they travel to region foe Bear River which has only lost one game this season.

Tooele will play three games this week with a game at Stansbury today, home against Woods Cross on Wednesday and at Highland on Thursday.

Mark Watson: mwatson@tooeletranscript.com