POCATELLO – Dillon Evans has never been lights out from the jump. The Malad pitcher is like the ‘90s coupe that needs all of the onramp to get going. He struggles in the first inning, then somehow hits cruising speed in the second and rolls to the finish line.

In the opening frame of Malad’s 7-5 win over Evanston (WY) on Saturday, the team from across state lines almost kept Evans’ day quite short. Evans needed 27 pitches to escape the first inning as balls kept hitting the backstop and missing the plate. Evanston only managed one hit, but Evans’ control issues plated three runs.

Then he took the mound in the second. He planted his black and white Nike cleats on the turf pitching mound and took off his hat. Then he closed his eyes, took a deep breath and transported to his happy place. This isn’t the Happy Gilmore-esque happy place with girls and money and gardens. Evans transports himself to the mountains of Downey. He’s hunting, searching for a mighty bull elk.

“And the heart is right in the middle of the plate,” Evans said. “I’ve done it all the way since I was young.”

Then Evans started to fire. Mixing up a fastball and a slurve, the recent Malad High grad hits his spots like he’s got a scope on the brim of his hat. After that first inning, Evans stayed in for another 4 2/3 frames, allowing two earned runs and five hits while punching out a quintet.

“Dillon, he’s a tough pitcher. He’s either on or he’s off. But if he’s in his groove, there’s not a better pitcher,” Malad coach Garen Atkinson said. “Once he settled down, I had all the confidence in the world. Before that, I was a little worried.”

If Evans needed to add to his Saturday highlight reel, he provided a nice closer in the sixth, mashing a double to dead center that bounced off the cement platform that holds the fence upright. Conservatively, it was a 390-yard blast that would’ve been a long ball if it had another five feet of height. “I probably should’ve hit the weight room more,” Evans said.

It didn’t make much of a difference on Friday. With the victory, Malad took home the silver bracket championship of the Pocatello Wood Bat Classic, the premier prize to all the teams on the wrong side of the standings after group play. The Dragons were certainly in that group. They lost to Hillcrest and Wood River during the first day of play, then came back on Thursday and beat the Pocatello Rays – the only B-team in the field – by three.

“We weren’t really working together on the first day,” Evans said, “and then, after that, we finally joined in together and played the ball we should’ve been playing the first days.”

Malad’s biggest problem stemmed from depth — or the lack thereof. When the Dragons donned their white championship shirts and posed for pictures with the trophy, the photoshoot didn’t take up much space. Mainly because of kids on vacation, Malad brought just nine kids to a tournament in which it played a half-dozen games.

That forced Atkinson to manage pitch counts with immaculate precision and think about not only how Malad could win early, but how they could keep enough pitchers for the weekend.

“It’s been tough, but we’ve managed it pretty good and one of our older kids came back today,” Atkinson said, “so that was perfect.”

And so was the ending.

“If we can keep coming together and playing like how we started to play today and the end of yesterday after the comeback,” Atkinson added, “I’m not worried about nothing.”

MALAD 7, EVANSTON (WY) 5

Evanston 301 010 0 — 5 7 4

Malad 201 031 x — 7 9 3

Evanston — LP: Jayden Schneider. 2B: Gus Allred.

Malad — WP: Dillon Evans. 2B: Dillon Evans, Kyler Horsley.