| Jerica Jensen pitches for the Lady Spartans. |
After four innings on a chilly, rainy spring afternoon in Castle Dale, it looked like the Emery High girl’s softball team was only three outs away from another loss. The Spartans were down 14-2 and the end was insight or so it seemed. They lost 19-17 in a non-region game to the Dixie Flyers.
Carly Anderson started on the mound for the Spartans and pitched a good first inning. It was three up, three down and two strikeouts for the young pitcher. The rain came in the second inning and it appeared that Anderson now had trouble holding the ball and Dixie scored seven times on four hits and three walks. The trouble though was the wild pitches as the wet ball constantly slipped out of her hand time after time. Dixie scored five more times in the third inning on three hits and two walks.
Emery managed a run in the second inning on a walk and an Anderson double. The Spartans also managed a run in the third inning on a Cortni Jensen triple and an Adrian McNee single. Jerica Jensen came on to pitch in the fourth inning. The Flyers added two more runs in the fourth.
In the top of the fifth inning, Jerica pitched the ball four times and got three outs. This was going to be a good inning.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Emery Spartan batters knocked out the opposing pitcher with a devastating offensive attack. Jerica hits a grand slam homerun, Misha Addley hits a three run homerun and the Spartans score 10 runs on seven hits. Cortni, who according to her mother cannot bunt, laid down the perfect bunt in the inning and her mom was stunned. The Spartans now trailed 14-12.
Both Dixie and Emery added five more runs each in the last two innings for the final score of 19-17. In the bottom of the seventh inning, Emery scored four times and had two runners on base and two batters already out as a runner was out trying to steal a base.
Coach Alton had this to say, “Our hitting has come along and our defense has its great moments. We are making adjustments of positions in the field to try and find better fits. Our pitching hasn’t come along as well as I had hoped it would but it is getting better.” This interview was before the game and it proved to be accurate. The Spartans just need to work on consistency to be a team that wins some ball games.
The Spartans continued region play with games against North Sanpete in Castle Dale and Lehi at Lehi. Both games were losses for the Spartans as their trend of inconsistency continued. They lost 13-3 to the Hawks as Emery’s only runs came on a first inning homerun by Cortni Jensen. They lost 14-3 to the Pioneers as they managed only three hits off the Lehi pitcher. Emery hosts two region rivals this week. On Tuesday they host Carbon and on Thursday, they host the Delta Rabbits.