| Tyrell Bennett tags the batter on the way to first base as Josh Eden runs in to back him up. |
After opening region play with two straight road losses, the Emery High Spartan baseball team came home to Castle Dale and evened their region record and season record with two big victories. On Tuesday, the Spartans won 6-0 over the Hawks from North Sanpete and on Friday they defeated the Lehi Pioneers 3-2.
Against North Sanpete, junior Chandler Pearson pitched a complete game two-hit shutout to win his third game of the season. The Spartans scored two runs in the third inning and then added four more in the sixth inning to cement the win.
On Friday, Emery opened the scoring with a single run in the bottom of the first inning. Pearson led off the game with a single, Garrett Swenson followed with a walk and Bowie Jeffs singled to load the bases. After a strikeout, Chandler Tanner hit a fly to centerfield to pickup the RBI as Pearson scored.
Emery picked up their second run of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning. Brady Larsen got a single and Kadin Wilson got on via a Lehi shortstop error. The runners ended up on second and third. Conley Luke laid down a sacrifice bunt to score Larsen and pick up an RBI.
After four shutout innings, the Lehi Pioneers got their first run in the top of the fifth inning. A single, a walk and a double by the leadoff batter in the line-up gave Lehi the run.
Emery added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth that they would need in the next inning. Wilson led off the inning with a walk, stole secpnd base and then the Lehi pitcher was called for a balk and Wilson ended up on third base. Luke got on base due to a Lehi error. Josh Bennett hit into a fielders choice to keep runners at the corners. Pearson then had a sacrifice fly to score Wilson for the third Emery run.
In the top of the seventh inning, Lehi led off with a single and then had a batter hit by a pitch for two on and nobody out. After a ground out that moved the runners to second and third, a sacrifice fly to deep left field scored another run. Jeffs struck out the next batter to end the ball game.
Bowie Jeffs pitched the complete ballgame to pick up the victory. He struck out 11 Lehi batters while giving up six Lehi hits. He walked only one Lehi batter.
Emery is again at home today against the Carbon Dinos. Game time is 3:30 p.m. For additional excitement, the Emery track team is hosting the Emery Invitational at the same time. Emery is now 2-2 in region and 6-6 on the season.