Down 12-0 going into the bottom of the third inning against Syracuse High School on March 24, the West High School boys baseball team was three innings away from a run-rule exit from the state tournament.

Having suffered a painful 3-2 loss to eventual state runner-up American Fork High School on May 21, it would have been easy for the Panthers to take their lumps and limp out of contention and back into anonymity without a fight.

But that wasn't what West was about. Instead, they rallied for four runs in the third inning, two more in the fourth and another in the sixth before leaving the tournament with a 12-7 loss and their honor intact.

"They didn't want to be known as the team that folded [like] last year," first-year coach Tuckett Slade said, referring to West's season-ending five-game losing streak in 2010. "In the past, this team would falter in any adversity. A couple of bad pitches, a couple of bad innings and they were done."

It could have easily happened again when Syracuse mounted a 10-run rally in the second inning May 24. It could have happened when Skyline High School came from behind for an 11-9 win to end the regular season May 10 that made sure the Panthers couldn't catch Cottonwood for second place in Region 2. However, West ended its season battling.

That's what Slade was most pleased about from his team — particularly, the seniors — this season. Whether it was Chance Abrath delivering five innings of shutout relief against Syracuse to keep West's hopes alive or the four-run sixth inning the Panthers orchestrated in a 9-7 win over Copper Hills High School in the first round of the tournament, the team never rolled over and played dead the way opponents have come to expect.

"Everyone's always going to pick the other team over us," Abrath said. "I think we changed some teams' minds this season."

Abrath and fellow senior Michael Valdez combined for a 9-6 record on the mound in the regular season and were the team's two biggest bats, followed by seniors Nico Soliz and Adrian Archibeque. There is plenty of work for Slade to do to keep the program's momentum churning in 2012.

He expects Eric Takenaka to be one of the state's best defensive shortstops thanks to his first full season playing the position on varsity and rare range and flexibility.

Alex Espinosa will be an important piece to West's future as will other underclassmen that need to be developed. Lesson No. 1, Slade says, is to learn to fight the same way the class of 2011 did.