Soon after the sun went down Friday night, Christian Colonel sent a text to Trem Tolman. Ahead of Saturday’s game, the third and final tilt in this first-round 5A District 5/6 tournament, Highland’s starting pitcher didn’t need much encouragement from his head coach — but he got it.
We’re putting this team on your back tomorrow, Colonel wrote. I wouldn’t trust anyone else but you to get us to state, to the district championship.
I got you, Coach, Tolman replied.
Turns out, Tolman had Colonel. He had the entire Highland team. In the Rams’ 10-0 win over the Bobcats, Tolman spun a six-inning no-hitter, helping the hosts move on to the 5A District 5/6 championship series against Idaho Falls with the best outing of his life.
Tolman’s final line looked like this: 6 innings, zero hits, zero runs, two walks, four strikeouts. He mixed pitches well. More importantly, he threw them for strikes. Madison couldn’t get around in time to square up his inside two-seamers. The Bobcats had even more trouble with his off-speed stuff.
“Trem Tolman. Unbelievable,” Colonel said. “Just keeping them off-balance, working them backwards. Throwing change-ups and curveball/sliders in fastball counts. And our defense played great.”
In other words, little went wrong for Highland, which has secured a trip to the 5A state tournament because the district title series sends both teams. Every Ram in the starting lineup recorded a hit. TJ Edgington posted two. Gunner Wilhelm recorded three in a 3-for-3 outing. That helped Highland pull away and invoke the run rule in six innings.
The avalanche started early. Highland registered a four-run first inning and a three-run second inning, staking a seven-run lead before the game turned an hour old. In the first frame, Wilhelm roped an RBI triple into right, and Edgington plated Wilhelm with a double to center.
In the second frame, catcher Aaron Kearns plated another run with an RBI double. Edgington helped drive in another run with a ground ball into left field. When the inning ended and the dust settled, Madison was looking up at a 7-0 deficit.
“We had a very good approach today,” Colonel said. “They hit a lot of fastballs. They got in fastball counts, took advantage of the fastballs. They laid off some off-speed pitches. They went the other way really well. They played the elements, the wind blowing out to right-center. Hit a lot of balls hard to right-center, and they found holes, and they ran the bases really well.”
In fact, that’s how Highland ended things early. In the sixth, Alex Romreill entered as a courtesy runner for Wilhelm. He advanced to third on a wild pitch, and when Madison catcher Jeffrey Williams corralled it, he sailed it into the outfield. That allowed Romreill to slide into home safely. Game over. “I wasn’t too worried about it,” Colonel said.
All the while, Tolman spun a gem. His only blemishes were two walks. Outside of that, he kept Madison hitters guessing with masterful pitch sequences. His fastballs bore in on righties. His breaking balls baffled them. That’s the thing about Tolman’s delivery: He doesn’t have all the velocity in the world.
“But he’s very effective with his off-speed pitches,” Colonel said. “So it makes his fastball get on guys a lot quicker.”
That has earned Highland a series with Idaho Falls and Utah commit Merit Jones, one of the state’s best pitchers. It’s a tricky thing: Both teams are going to state, so the Rams aren’t putting that streak in any jeopardy. But they do want to win the district title. That’s important to them.
“We’re excited that we get a state bid, so we’ve extended our season two weeks, and anything can happen at state,” Colonel said. “But one of our goals this year was to win the conference, and we get an opportunity to do that. That’s all I ask from the boys: give us an opportunity.”