The 2009 high school baseball season kicked off for the Emery Spartans with two victories last week over Grand and Gunnison. Emery traveled to Moab on Monday and defeated the Devils 4-1 and on Wednesday kicked off their home season with a 16-15 win over the two-time defending state 2-A champions Bulldogs.
Grand scored first in the bottom of the first inning after a base hit and an Emery error. That turned out to be the only run of the day of Spartan pitcher Addison Collard. Collard did strike out two batters in that first inning on the way to an eight strikeout day.
In the top of third inning, Kash Jewkes got hit by a pitch, Gatlan Huntington walked and Jason Giles singled home Jewkes to tie the score. After a ground out advanced the runners, Huntington scored on a ball hit to the shortstop that was booted. Emery led 2-1.
The next inning Emery added two insurance runs. Taylor Tanner led off the inning with a double to left field and scored on a single by Derrick Allred. Jewkes and Huntington each singled and Allred also would score.
Emery finished the game with four runs on seven base hits with Tanner having two of those hits. Huntington had the only two walks of the game.
In the slugfest, error fest game with Gunnison on Wednesday, Emery took the early lead at 6-0 in the first two innings, lost that lead at 6-8 after the third inning and then grabbed it back in the bottom of the sixth inning.
In the bottom of the first, Huntington singled to right field, Giles was safe on an error by the catcher on a bunt, Colby Snow got hit by a pitch, Brett Mecham walked and Collard doubled as four runs scored. After two groundouts, Allred singled and scored Collard and Emery led 5-0 after the first inning.
In the second inning, Giles got hit by a pitch and would score. Snow singled to right centerfield for the RBI.
Gunnison scored a run in the third inning and nine more in the fourth inning off starting pitcher Brett Mecham. Five base hits including a homerun, two walks and an Emery error led to all the runs. Emery was held scoreless in the bottom of the third inning.
In the fourth inning, and Emery scored three runs as Emery narrowed the gap in the score. Snow led off the inning and got on base by an error on the first baseman and would later score. Collard also got on a base by an error and Nevin Jensen hit a triple to right centerfield to pick up two RBIs.
The runs continued piling on in the fifth inning as Gunnison would add four more and Emery would add three. Gunnison’s runs came because of two walks, two singles and a triple. Emery’s runs came because Mecham walked, Collard doubled, Jensen got on by a left fielder’s error and Allred singled.
Gunnison scored one run in the top of the sixth inning but Emery added four runs in the bottom of the inning to grab a one run lead. In the inning, Huntington tripled to left centerfield; Giles singled to score Huntington but was thrown out at second base. Snow singled, Mecham got hit by pitch and Collard got on due to an error by the pitcher. Tanner had a sacrifice fly in the mix and Jensen was safe due to another error.
In the top of the seventh inning with Emery up in the score, Mecham struck out the first two batters, numbers three and four in the line-up who usually are pretty good hitters, and got the next batter to ground out on a ball hit back to the pitcher.
Emery scored 16 runs on 12 base hits and made eight errors. Gunnison scored 15 runs on 13 base hits and made four errors. Collard had two doubles in the game and Allred and Jewkes each had one. Jensen and Huntington each tripled in the ball game.
Emery will host Grand this Tuesday, will travel to Uintah on Wednesday and then will play in a tournament in Montrose, Colorado this Friday and Saturday.
Spring sports begin in a winning fashion for Emery
"Brett Mecham pitches for Emery against Moab."