TWIN FALLS — Vinnie Benavidez steeled himself and trotted out to the mound. It was time to make the decision he desperately wanted to avoid. He had to pull his star pitcher Brody Burch, the Pocatello senior who had tossed 6 2/3 innings of perfect baseball, a sterling outing to hand the Thunder a giant lead on Wood River in Thursday’s 4A state tournament opener.

So he retrieved the ball from Burch, who retreated to the Skip Walker Field dugout. In came junior Garrett Keller, whose two-out error at second base erased the perfect game. Burch yielded a one-run double to the next batter. Besides, Burch was approaching 60 pitches, and if he reached that mark, he would become ineligible to pitch later in the weekend.

“I was agonizing over it for an inning,” Benavidez said, “but then when they got the hit and did that, it was a no-brainer.”

The good news for the Thunder, who are moving on to Friday’s semifinals at 4 p.m., is Keller had no trouble recording one out and sealing an 8-1 Pocatello win. Keller may have made a costly error, but Burch had done more than enough to get the Thunder there: 6 2/3 innings, one run on one hit, zero walks and eight strikeouts, his finest work in his biggest spot yet.

He did it the way he always does: With a blistering fastball and a baffling slider, a lethal combination that Wood River had nothing for. Burch fanned two in the second, two in the fourth, one in the fifth, two in the sixth, then one in the seventh before his pursuit of perfection came to an end.

While it was still active, though, Burch knew. Who doesn’t? Some pitchers may bluff ignorance, saying afterward they were taking things one batter at a time, but the truth is they know. So Burch understood the stakes, that he was piecing together a perfect game at the state tournament.

“I mean, it’s hard not to think about it during the game,” Burch said, “but just not changing anything. Just keep doing what you’re doing, and trusting your stuff.”

Burch has every reason to trust his stuff. You don’t have to be an MLB scout to understand that. His slider bends like a boomerang, his curveball like a pendulum. His fastball has enough zip to scare batters into loading up for it, which is when they start whiffing at the slider, and that’s when Burch starts feeling like he can get anybody out.

On Thursday, he nearly did.

“Oh man, it was unreal,” Benavidez said. “Brody, he was huge, man. Couldn’t ask for anything better from him.”

Poky’s offense made sure Burch never had to worry about keeping the lead. Shortstop Jayce Vaughan drove in two runs on four hits, including a solo homer, for the Thunder, who secured a two-run lead with a bizarre play in the first frame. It started with center fielder Mack Evans, who lined a double into the outfield, but that’s where Wood River’s outfielder had trouble making the play, which allowed Evans to come all the way around to score.

It won’t go down as an inside-the-park home run — thank the error, one of the Wolverines’ five in the game, for that — but it did energize the Thunder. They scored in the second, when Vaughan singled home Kache Stucki, and again in the third, when JD Gunderson used an RBI triple to plate Evans. An inning later, Vaughan homered, and in the fifth, Gunderson stole home for another run.

In the sixth, Poky scored another two runs on two errors, and at that point, the Thunder had all but wrapped up this win. It may look like just a first-round win, and for this tournament’s No. 2 seed, maybe that’s all it was. But Pocatello hadn’t won its first state tournament game since 2016.

“This has normally been kind of a sad day, you know, not having a chance at the state championship game in past years,” Burch said. “So it feels great to know that we came out and did what we needed to do.”

Pocatello will play either Twin Falls or Bishop Kelly in Friday’s semifinals. Burch won’t be eligible to pitch in that one. He will be eligible to say he came close to perfection, though.