Lady Spartans go 5-0, Lake throws perfection
| Leslee Lake makes a play at pitcher. She pitches well at the St. George tourney over the weekend. Candace Norton plays third in back. |
Pitcher Leslee Lake capped off a St. George softball tournament by pitching a four-inning perfect game in the championship game against Carbon High. Emery, who went south with the hopes of getting better and maybe winning a few games, came home with a shirt that said champions on it. Emery and Carbon each went 4-0 in their divisions before facing each other in the final game of the day.
On Friday, Emery opened play against Gunnison High and left with an impressive 9-1 victory. Gunnison scored first in the bottom of the first inning off a double and a pair of Emery errors. Emery answered in the top of the second after a walk to Markette Tanner and a single by Keera Allred. Emery added three runs in the top of the fifth inning and five more runs in the sixth inning.
In the fifth inning, Jalee Jensen tripled to right field, Chelsea Skinner walked, Leslee Lake singled to center, Bailey Kay singled to right and then Whitney Allen and Tanner walked to load the bases before Gunnison got the final out.
In the sixth inning, Adriane Weihing, Lake, Kay, Candice Norton and Allen would all score to pad the Emery lead. Tanner singled in the inning to get on base every time she batted. Emery finished with a .528 on base percentage in the game. Besides Jensen’s triple, Kay got a double for the only extra base hits. Lake held Gunnison to four base hits in the game, walked four batters and struck out five batters to get the win.
Emery then played Lincoln High out of Nevada and got a come-back 8-7 victory. Lincoln scored four runs in the first and one in the second to grab a 5-1 lead. Allen would score first for Emery. After a walk, Allen advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Allred and scored on a Jensen single to right field.
Emery would grab the lead for good with seven runs in the third inning. Weihing singled, Lake walked, Norton got on by way of an error, Allen walked, Tanner singled, Allred singled, Jensen singled and Weihing then singled again. Weihing got thrown out stealing second to close the inning.
Gunnison would then score twice more in the fourth inning. Allred got the victory and Lake got the save.
Emery then shut out Logan High 6-0. Emery scored two in the first, three in the second and one in the sixth inning. Emery had eight hits in the game led by Jensen with three. Weihing had two singles and Kay and Tanner each had a single. Lake hit a double. Lake got the win as she gave up only three hits and no walks and struck out eight batters.
Emery then faced East High and won 16-4. Emery scored 10 runs in the first inning, gave up four in the second inning and finished the game with 1 run in the fourth inning and five more runs in the fifth inning.
Emery sent 16 batters to bat in the first inning and left the bases loaded when Allen flew out to left field. Jensen walked and singled, Weihing walked and singled, Skinner walked, Lake walked and singled, Kay singled, Norton walked and singled, Allen walked, Tanner singled and Allred walked in that first inning.
Tanner scored in the fourth inning after she singled, Allred singled and Weihing doubled. In the fifth inning, Lake, Kay, Norton each doubled, Allen and Tanner singled and Allred walked. Jensen got on base and Weihing then doubled to end the scoring. Emery had 18 hits in the game and received eight walks. Allred got the win as she gave up four hits and five walks. Kaleena Mouritsen pitched the final two innings and gave up a walk and two singles.
Emery would face Carbon for the championship. Carbon had defeated Millard, Rowland Hall, Beaver and Ogden in their division. Emery would score one run in the first inning, seven runs in the second inning and six more in the third inning in the abbreviated game as games were called after the fourth inning when one team led by eight runs.
While Emery was scoring every time they came to bat, Leslie Lake closed out a marvelous tournament by throwing a perfect game. Lake faced three batters in each of the four innings the game went. Lake struck out seven batters, enticed three batters to hit easy ground balls and got a batter in the final inning to fly out to right field. Lake would finish the trip with three wins and a save. Lake threw two shut outs and a one-run game and threw two shut out innings in the save. In the four appearances, Lake would give up only seven base hits and four walks.
In the Carbon game, Weihing led the way with three runs as she walked, singled and doubled. Skinner scored twice as she singled, doubled and tripled. Lake also scored twice after she singled and doubled. Kay also scored twice after being hit by a pitch and getting a single. Tanner also scored twice after doubling and getting on by way of an error. Jensen, Allen and Allred all scored once. Norton never scored but she had two singles and a double in the game. Allred singled twice and Allen and Jensen each singled once in the game.
Emery plays at home today and also next Tuesday. Game time is 3 p.m.