This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Orem • Ben Agnew began celebrating before he even cleared the batter's box.

His right fist shot up in excitement, and a high-five waited for him at first base, courtesy of his first-base coach. That's when his batting helmet came flying off as his Park City teammates streamed from the dugout to celebrate Thursday.

Agnew crunched a single to right-center field to score courtesy runner Van Rabe from second base with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning to take down two-time defending state champion Pine View 7-6 and advance to Friday's Class 3A baseball state semifinal.

"He threw me a curveball first pitch and it missed, so I knew what was coming next — fastball — and I jumped all over it," Agnew said. "It was good."

He acknowledged he sold out on that fastball. He was that sure what was coming.

"Luckily he gave it to me," he said.

This wasn't the sophomore's first walk-off hit this season. The Miners' No. 8 hitter also came through against Stansbury last month, a game that helped Park City sew up the region title.

"We all know he can do it, so we all have it in the back of our minds, 'OK, he can hit it. He can do it,'" winning pitcher Ryan Brady said.

Park City looked in control after scoring four runs in the fourth inning to open a 6-1 lead and Brady, its BYU-bound ace, on the mound. But he'd only thrown 58 pitches, and that meant if he stopped pitching at that point, he could pitch again Saturday because the state's new pitch-count limits say the required rest for a player who throws between 36 and 60 pitches is one day.

Miners coach David Feasler decided to roll the dice.

Pine View had other plans. The Panthers strung together four consecutive hits for three runs after a leadoff strikeout against Miners reliever Zack Luna.

Feasler had seen enough.

He went back to Brady, who had moved to shortstop. After an error allowed a fourth run to score, Brady worked out of the jam with his team up a run.

"Obviously it looks bad if we lose," Feasler said. "I think we did what we had to do. It was the right move."

Pine View evened the score in the sixth on a pair of singles with an error in between, which set up Agnew's heroics.

After gathering down the left-field line to talk about the win, the Miners headed toward the dugout to clean it out.

Well, all the Miners except Agnew. He broke from the pack and slowly headed toward first base. That's because no one had retrieved his helmet.

"I threw it up and realized I didn't have it," he said. "It's all good." —

Park City 7,

Pine View 6

• Park City sophomore Ben Agnew knocks in his third run on the game with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning for the win.

• Park City ace Ryan Brady strikes out six over 62⁄3 innings.

• Pine View, the two-time defending Class 3A state champions, gets three hits and two RBIs from Jagun Leavitt, who started on the mound for the Panthers.

Thursday's quarterfinal scores

Dixie 12, Snow Canyon 2

Park City 7, Pine View 6

Friday's state semifinal

at Brent Brown Ballpark in Orem

4:30 p.m. • Dixie vs. Park City