| Brady Larsen, far right, is congratulated by his fellow Spartans after he hits a home run. |
As the 3-A State baseball tournament continued last week in Utah County, the Emery Spartans were optimistic that fortune was on their side. They had an opponent they had already defeated, they had fresh pitchers and they had started to hit the ball better. Alas, fate was not on their side and the Spartans suffered a season ending loss at the bats of the Delta Rabbits, 4-3 in extra innings.
Emery scored first on a Brady Larsen homerun in the top of the fourth inning to give the Spartans the 1-0 lead. Delta came back in the bottom of the inning with the tying run on three straight singles before Bowie Jeffs enticed a ground out to the shortstop.
At the end of seven innings, the score was still 1-1. Emery had an opportunity in the third inning to score as Conlee Luke got to third base. In the sixth inning, a broken bat hit by Brady Larsen was caught at the fence to prevent the go ahead score and another homer. In the seventh inning, Daniel Luke made it to second base before two groundouts and a fly ball ended the inning.
Bowie Jeffs, starting pitcher, allowed a first inning single before striking out two and getting a groundout. In the third, three straight groundouts kept Delta in check. In the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, Jeffs faced only 10 batters. He struck out five and got four grounders for outs and gave up a walk.
In the eighth inning, Jeffs singled, Larsen walked and Chandler Tanner hit into a fielder’s choice to put runners on the corners. Trevor Thompson hit a long single and two runners crossed the plate and Emery held a 3-1 lead.
Delta sent six batters to the plate in the bottom of the eighth, all got on base and the first three scored to send Emery home. Three singles, two walks and a hit batsman sealed Emery’s loss.
After an opening loss to these same Delta Rabbits, Bear River came back with eight straight wins to win the title. They defeated Cedar City twice, 6-2 and 4-3. They defeated Carbon 9-5 to get to the championship game.