Losing a coin flip to determine seeding has resulted in a long road trip for Tooele.

Tooele and Springville tied for first place in Region 7 so a coin toss was needed to seed the teams for the state tournament. The Buffs lost the toss.

So after defeating Woods Cross Tuesday 5-1 in the first round of the state playoffs at Deseret Peak Complex, the players packed their bags and traveled to St. George on Wednesday for a game today against the Dixie Flyers.

The Flyers are 17-6 on the year and ranked as high as second in state rankings. Win or lose, the Buffs will play again on Tuesday at the Valley Regional Softball complex at 5 or 5:30 p.m. The state tournament runs through Thursday at the softball facility in Salt Lake City, 5135 S. 2700 West.

Tooele advanced to the second round by whipping the Wildcats.

A Woods Cross pitching change to start the fifth inning helped the Buffs instead of Woods Cross.

With Tooele leading 3-1, Woods cross replaced starting pitcher Hilary Hunter with Niki Fernandes.

To start the fifth inning, Tooele's Lauren Folta hit a slow infield roller which the new pitcher threw wildly to first base allowing Folta to reach second. Kelsey Mendenhall then greeted Fernandes with a blast over the left-centerfield fence to increase Tooele's lead to 5-1.

Brittany Gonzales then smacked a single to right and Woods Cross coach Donna Tippetts had seen enough and replaced Fernandes with Kelsey Plowman. Plowman retired the next three batters to stop the bleeding for Woods cross.

The 5-1 lead held up for Tooele during the next two innings as the Buffs moved on to the second round of the 4A state playoffs.

"The pitching change helped us. We struggled facing their starter who was a slow pitcher, but when the faster pitcher came in we tagged her pretty hard," said Tooele coach Barry Pitt.

Tooele's pitching was solid with sophomore Mattie Snow throwing a complete game allowing one run on four hits with 10 strikeouts. Tooele's defense was also superb with no errors for the game.

"We knew Mattie could get it done today and we'll have a rested Folta to pitch on Thursday," Pitt said.

After a scoreless game through three innings, Tooele rallied for three runs in the fourth.

Whitney Holt and Whitney Griffith reached second and first bases respectively on fielder's choice plays. With two outs, the runners moved to second and third on a wild pitch and then Aly Jensen smacked a grounder to third which the third baseman threw wildly to first allowing Holt and Griffth to score. Jensen scored a third run in the inning on a single by Gonzales.

mwatson@tooeletranscript.com