With three region baseball victories last week, the Emery High Spartans finish region 8 play with a strong second place finish and now head to the playoffs in great position. As of press time, Emery will travel to Grantsville this Saturday and will face Judge Memorial in the first round of the 3-A tournament.
Judge Memorial is the defending 3-A state champion and was heavily favored to repeat at the beginning of the season but the Bulldogs faded and should finish third in their region.
Emery finished the 2009 season with an overall record of 16-4 and a region record of 8-2. Region champion Juan Diego is ranked as the best team in 3-A baseball. Emery and Juan Diego split their region games, each winning on the opponent’s field. Emery’s other losses were to Salem Hills in region and twice to Uintah, the top-ranked team out of region 10.
Last Tuesday, Emery started the week with impressive 12-2 victory over Carbon. Brett Mecham pitched for the Spartans and gave up six hits in grabbing the win. On Thursday, Emery played North Sanpete and won 12-0. Gatlan Huntington picked up the win as he threw a no-hitter at the Hawks. On Friday, Emery traveled to Delta and finished the week off with an 8-1 win in the make-up game. Addison Collard got the win.
Nevin Jensen led the offensive effort against Carbon. Jensen was three for four at the plate, scored twice and had four RBIs. Nevin had a single, a double and a triple in the game. Colby Snow was two for four and had a homerun in the game. Huntington and Collard each hit a double for Emery.
Colby led the effort against the Hawks, as he was three for three at the plate including another homerun and two singles. Colby also scored three times and had two RBIs. Taylor Tanner was two for two in the game and hit a grand slam home run in the first inning. Taylor also walked once, had five RBIs and scored once. Tanner and Derrick Allred each hit a double in the game.
Tanner was three for four against Delta and scored twice. Emery had 13 hits at Delta, with all 13 being singles. Huntington, Collard and Allred each had a pair of hits in the game.
The Dinos scored the first two runs of the game in the top of the second inning but that turned out to be their only two runs of the game. Emery scored six runs in the third inning and six more runs in the sixth inning. In the third inning, Kash Jewkes led of the inning with a single and Jewkes finished the inning with a ground out. Emery had five hits and a walk in the inning. In the sixth inning, Jewkes again led off with a single and the entire team batted around in the inning until Mecham scored two runs with a single to left field to end the game.
Against the Hawks, Emery scored five runs in the first inning, two more in the third inning and five more runs in the fourth inning. The two homeruns by Tanner and Snow helped Emery get the fast start in the first. Emery had six base hits in the fourth inning.
The Rabbits were able only to score a single run in the sixth inning while Emery scored once in the first inning, four times in the fourth inning and three more times in the seventh inning. Jason Giles singled and worked his way around the bases in the first inning to score the first run of the game. Emery led off the fourth with four straight singles by Collard, Tanner, Snow and Allred and all would eventually score. Tanner, Allred and Mecham all singled in the seventh inning and eventually scored.
Emery finished the season averaging 8.90 runs per game and giving up 5.40 runs per game. Addison Collard led the team with a .375 batting average with Derrick Allred at .362 and Brett Mecham at .361. Allred led the team in homeruns and RBIs.
Be sure to get an update on where Emery plays this Saturday because there are still many games to be made up that were weathered out and those games could change the teams played and the location.
Emery travels to the region 11 winner’s home field. Grantsville leads at 8-2 but Morgan is 5-2 with three games to make up against Ben Lomond and Ogden.
When Saturday’s game time and location is set it will be posted on the Progress website, www.ecprogress.com.
Emery wins three heads to state games
"Gatlan Huntington slides at home with the Carbon catcher blocking the way even though he doesn't have the ball. Huntington was safe at home."