The Stansbury High School baseball team nabbed two exciting victories on Thursday and Monday which should give them at least a tie for third place in Region 6 and spot in the 4A state playoffs.

On Thursday the Stallions used a superb pitching performance from Taylor Hunt to down visiting Woods Cross 1-0 in eight innings. It was the first region loss of the season for the Wildcats.

In the first of a doubleheader at Bountiful on Monday, Brennan Walker worked a full seven innings to pick up a 5-3 victory over the Braves.

The Stallions dropped the second game 5-4 after leading at one point 4-0. Stansbury is on a bit of a hot streak having won four of its last six games and finishes off the regular season today against a woeful Highland team which should give the Stallions an 8-4 region record.

“Our pitching has been pretty strong. Brennan had a strong game last Tuesday against East with seven strikeouts in a 13-3 victory and then he came back today (Monday) and had another strong game. Bountiful’s runs today were all unearned,” said Stansbury coach Ray Clinton.

After Hunt’s strong performance on Thursday, he came back to pitch Monday’s second game with little rest. Hunt was able to go five innings and held a 4-3 lead when he left the game.

“His pitch count was way up at 100 pitches so we decided to take him out and brought in Christian Pitts and he gave up a couple of runs and we couldn’t get any more runs,” the coach said.

“Of course we wanted to win both games, but it was very important to get a split and give us a better seeding in the state tournament,” Clinton said.

If Stansbury finishes in the third spot there is a good chance they will open the state tournament at Lehi on May 11. A victory against Lehi would mean a showdown with top rated Spanish Fork which is considered the best baseball team in the state among all classifications.

The coach said Walker is a strong pitcher because of his variety of pitches. “He has four different pitches with a fast ball, slider, curve and change-up. It’s good if a high school pitcher has three pitches so having four pitches is even better,” Clinton said.

Hunt is more of a power pitcher who can throw in the high 80 mph range. The two pitchers have turned out to be a strong one-two punch for the Stallions.

“Our pitchers aren’t necessarily strikeout pitchers, and they make hitters put the ball in play which makes it important for us to be strong defensively and most of the time we are very good defensively,” the coach said.

Stansbury 1 — Woods Cross 0 (8 innings)

With both pitchers at the top of their games on a frigid Thursday afternoon at Stansbury High School the game moved along quickly. The Stallions threatened in the bottom of the fourth when Pitts singled followed by a Colton Barkdull single to put runners at first and second with nobody out. Woods Cross ace pitcher Austin Bankowski then struck out the next three Stansbury batters to quash the rally.

Woods Cross had a chance to score in the top of the sixth when Zach Johnson smacked a triple to the right-center gap with two outs. The Wildcats’ next batter flew out to center field.

The Stallions looked primed to score in the bottom of the sixth when Jake Witkowski blasted a double to deep center to start the inning. He then went to third on a sacrifice bunt by Pitts. Barkdull was hit by a pitch which put runners at the corners with one out. Bankowski was able to strikeout a couple of strong Stallion hitters in Clint Petersen and Walker to get out of the jam.

Woods Cross got a double from Timon Wyler with two outs in the top of the seventh, but the next batter popped out to catcher Barkdull.

A runner for Woods Cross reached first in the top of the eighth, but strong play from the Stansbury infield thwarted any real threat. “Our infield is very tight,” Clinton said.

Witkowski got things started in the bottom of the eighth with his second consecutive double of the game with one out. He stole third base and was still there after a strikeout for the second out of the inning.

Petersen redeemed himself for striking out with a runner in scoring position back in the sixth. Petersen laced a two-out single to score Witkowski from the third and give the Stallions the 1-0 victory.

Stansbury 5 — Bountiful 3

Stansbury opened a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on an RBI single by Petersen. The Braves came back to score two in the third and one in the fourth to go up 3-1.

The Stallions threatened in the third when Witkowski reached third on a fielder’s choice followed by a sacrifice bunt and stolen base. But his teammates could not bring him home.

Stansbury rallied in the fourth and loaded the bases with one out on a single, error and bunt single. But a double play by the Braves ended the threat.

Bountiful could have added more than one run the fourth, but Brennan fielded a slow chopper and gunned down the runner leading off third base.

The game-winning rally for the Stallions came in the top of the sixth when they sent eight batters to the plate and scored four runs.

Hunt got things started with a towering home run blast over the left field fence. Walker walked and was replaced by pinch runner Matt Lindsley. With one out Matt Cuellar ripped an RBI single and Lindsley and Levya both scored on a pair of errant throws by the Braves. Cuellar ended up at third base because of the wild throws. Cuellar then scored on a single to right by Witkowski. The inning ended on a double play by the Braves.

Walker ended up striking out four batters in the final two innings to preserve the victory. He had a total of eight strikeouts against the Braves.

Mark Watson: mwatson@tooeletranscript.com