(Payson's Dailey Carnes. Photo by Jose Garcia/aia365.com)

Dailey Carnes didn’t perform the dance moves he debuted at his prom last week as he walked off the mound.

Teammates who wanted to congratulate Carnes made it difficult for him to get his groove on after completing his best high school performance in the biggest game of the season for Payson. What made it even sweeter for Carnes is that his breakthrough outing Friday came against Blue Ridge in the second round of the Division III state baseball tournament.

From the third inning on, Carnes was as close to perfect as a pitcher can get, retiring the final 15 batters en route to a 9-0 shutout victory at the Surprise Recreation Campus.  The junior struck out 11 of those 15 batters, including eight in a row from the third to fifth inning.

But the difficult-to-believe part is that Carnes isn’t the team’s ace. He’s actually Payson’s closer and hadn’t pitched more than four innings in a game this season.

“I don’t know yet if I’ve quite really realized what just happened,” Carnes said. “Blue Ridge and Payson have been rivals for years and to finally beat them and move on, it feels great.”

Carnes started the game hurling fastballs to the inside corner, but from after the second inning Blue Ridge just saw a healthy amount of off speed pitches mixed in with low fastballs.

Working with former major leaguer Kelly Stinnett and his club, Grinders, during this past offseason helped Carnes elevate his game, he said. The training also helped build his endurance.

But Carnes said he was gassed when he reached the seventh inning. It didn’t look that way, however, after ending the game with another 1-2-3 inning.

The right-handed pitcher didn’t walk a batter and threw 90 pitches.

“I’m proud of him,” said Carnes father, Brett, just before the final out of the game.

Payson, the tournament’s No. 9 seed, won’t get too much time to rest for its next game. 

It’ll return to Surprise for Saturday’s 1 p.m. quarterfinal and play either Combs or No. 1 seed Show Low.

“For him (Carnes) to come and pitch like that today, it’s big,” Payson coach Brian Young said.