Right from the beginning, the Tooele 11-year-old all-stars brought out the bats and put 11 runs on the board in the first inning before Taylorsville could even touch their bats.

Tooele rode that huge advantage in the first to a mercy-rule shortened 17-5 victory in four innings over Taylorsville Wednesday evening at Parker’s Park in Tooele in the state tournament. With the victory, Tooele assures themselves that they will be one of the final two teams to move on to Pacific Southwest regional tournament in Panguitch.

McKay Pollman and Josh Bryan had near perfect days at the plate for Tooele. Pollman went 4-for-4 at the plate with three singles and a double while knocking in three runs while Bryan went 3-for-3 with three singles, a walk and a run batted in.

As the designated visiting team, Tooele couldn’t have imagined a better start to its game against Taylorsville. Pollman, Lincoln Powers and Bryan all singled to start the game to load the bases. Tooele scored their first run after Zac Dean was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded then Powers later came in to score after an error to make the score 2-0.

Bryan was able to score from third on a passed ball for the third run then Dean took advantage of another Taylorsville error to score for a 4-0 Tooele lead. Jerzee Houston drove in two runs with his double down the right field line to score Jack Giddens and Jake Luke for a 6-0 advantage.

Tooele continued to roll in the first with an RBI double by Pollman off the fence in center then Powers delivered a blow in the form of a two-run home run to dead-center for a 9-0 Tooele lead. Giddens knocked in two more runs with his double to the gap in right-center for a commanding 11-0 lead before Taylorsville could even reach for a bat. During a dominant first inning, Tooele sent 14 batters to the plate and dished out eight hits while scoring the 11 runs.

Taylorsville was shut out in the first inning but managed to threaten in the second. Sam Reichmann led off the second with a triple and later came in to score on a passed ball to get Taylorsville on the board, but still trailed 11-1 after two innings.

Pollman and Bryan teamed up to get a run back for Tooele. Pollman nailed a one-out single then two batters later, Bryan singled down the first base line to extend the lead back to 12-1.

Taylorsville actually threatened to make a game of it in the third inning with a rally. Reichmann started the scoring with a double down the third base line for a run then Tavita Jameson scored on a passed ball to cut the Tooele lead down to 12-4. Hunter Roe knocked in the fifth Taylorsville run on a single to left-center to bring Tooele within seven runs.

All of the Taylorsville fight was extinguished with a big fourth inning from Tooele. Adam Delaney started the scoring with a two-run double to the fence in right-center to increase the lead to 14-5.

A single by Houston to right field gave Tooele a double-digit lead again at 15-5 then Pollman delivered again with a single to left that knocked in Delaney and Houston for a commanding 17-5 lead.

Taylorsville didn’t go down without a fight as Cordell Sanderson walked and Draven Jamieson singled to start the bottom of the fourth as they were looking to avoid the run-rule. Pollman however, struck out two of the following three batters on the mound for Tooele to seal the 12-run victory.

Tooele will play another game tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Parker’s Park to determine which team will win the state tournament.

Catholic Youth and Taylorsville play tonight at 5 p.m. on Parker’s Park west. The winner of that game advances to play Tooele at 7:30 p.m. A Tooele win at 7:30 p.m. would result in a state championship.

Jake Gordon: jgordon@tooeletranscript.com