Spartans go 2-2 in a week of preseason action

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The Emery High boys baseball team went 2-2 in preseason action this past week. The week of baseball began with a visit from the Uintah Utes to the Castle Dale field. The Utes went home defeated by a score of 9-4. Chance Huntington hit the first home run of the season in this game. Pitching this game was Nick Stoddard who allowed one run in three innings, Hunter Huntington allowed three runs in one inning and Geren Payne finished three innings without any runners coming in which kept the Uintah scoring to 4 points.
The team traveled to the Montrose, Colo. tournament on Friday and Saturday where they played three games. In the first game against Eagle Valley the Spartans picked up two runs in the first inning with Kash Jewkes and Jacob Tuttle scoring and then went on a long drought at the plate as they didn’t pick up another run until the last inning. At the last at bat Gage Bell was hit by a pitch, Nathan Mecham and Kash Jewkes walked on balls. Bell stole third and Mecham stole second which set things up for Payne who doubled and knocked in Bell and Mecham. Next batter up Nick Stoddard walked. Chance Huntington struck out. Hunter Huntington hit the ball which brought up loaded bases. Dominic Rondinelli hit a grounder and the ball was thrown home to prevent Jewkes from scoring. These two runs took the score to 4 for the Spartans with Eagle Valley at 3 points going into the last half of the seventh inning as they were the home team with last bats. The Spartans couldn’t hold them back as they scored one run to tie and another to win as the Spartans went down 4-5. Pitching in this game was Geren Payne for two innings, Hunter Huntington for four innings and Gage Bell for one inning.
The second game of the day saw the Spartans face the team from Delta, Colo. The first inning started out slow for the Spartans with Bell striking out, Mecham being hit by a pitch and then being thrown out at first and Stoddard striking out. In the second inning, Geren Payne hit a double, Kash Jewkes struck out, Hunter Huntington was hit by a pitch, Brandon Oliver struck out and McCoy Allred had a base hit which knocked in Payne and Huntington. Emery was up 2-1 at the end of two innings. The third inning saw Bell flyout, Stoddard walked and Mecham and Payne struck out. The fourth inning saw Jewkes strike out, Huntington walked but was out at second on a fielders choice when Tappan Draper hit the ball and ended up on first. At the top of five the Spartans were down 2-5 and couldn’t put any more scoring together as the Delta team came alive at the bat and went up by a score of 2-10 in the sixth inning when the time ran out. Jordan Cox had a single and Nate Mecham had a double in this game.
Saturday’s game saw the Spartan’s bats come alive again as they defeated Moffat County by a score of 14-4. Nathan Mecham pitched for the first time this season and he allowed two runs in the first inning and then settled down. Spartans were the home team this go round and in the first inning, Bell struck out and then Mecham, Stoddard, and Payne all walked, stole bases and scored. Jewkes struck out, followed by Hunter and Chance Huntington walking, stealing and scoring. Draper walked on balls and Allred flew out to end the inning with the Spartans up 5-2. Bell pounded a homerun in the second inning to bring the score to 6-2. Mecham flew out, Stoddard got on base with a ground ball and stole around and scored 7-2 for the Spartans. Payne hit a double and later scored. Jewkes pumped his first home run of the season bringing the score to 9-2. The Huntington brothers singled and doubled to both score that inning driving the score up to 11-2. Draper hit a single, Allred flew out, Bell hit a double and Mecham a triple to bring the score to 14-2. Stoddard walked and Payne hit a ground ball to end the inning. The game ended after four innings with the 10 run rule as the Spartans had a 14-4 final over Moffat County.
Pitching in this game was Mecham and Jacob Tuttle.
Spartans will travel on Tuesday for a rematch with Uintah in Vernal and will play Union at Roosevelt on Friday.