Emery Spartans beat Morgan and Bear River

By GARY ARRINGTON Sports writer

After defeating Richfield at Richfield to forge a tie for the region 12 baseball title, the Emery High Spartans lost a coin flip and went to playoff action as the number two seed from the region. Emery had defeated Richfield 14-11.
With the four 3-A region champions hosting the first round action, Emery found themselves in Price along with Carbon High, Bear River High and Morgan High. In the opening game of the day, Emery defeated Bear River 3-0. After Morgan upset host Carbon, Emery then defeated Morgan in second round action 7-0. With the win, Emery joined Richfield, Desert Hills and Juan Diego as the only still undefeated teams left in the state tournament.
At Richfield, Emery trailed 5-0 after the first inning and 7-1 after the second inning. It appeared that Richfield would stay undefeated in region action this year. In the top of the fifth inning, with the score still 7-1; Emery’s Nathan Mecham led off the inning with a single. Geren Payne followed with another single, as did Nick Stoddard. After the first out of the inning, Gage Bell singled, Braden Bolotas got on due to an error and Nevin Jensen singled. These six Emery base runners all would eventually score and Emery had tied the game at 7-7. Emery left the bases loaded in the inning.
In the sixth inning, Emery scored four more times to grab their first lead of the game. Quinn Montgomery led off the inning with a double followed by a single from Bell. Colter Moore singled and Kash Jewkes closed out the Emery scoring in the inning with a homerun.
Emery scored three times in the top of the seventh inning to extend the lead to 14-7. Stoddard hit a homerun, Montgomery singled, Bell singled, Jensen singled and Moore singled. Richfield scored four times in the bottom of the inning to narrow the gap to the final score of 14-11.
Against Bear River on Saturday, Emery had only a single base runner in the first three innings, Payne getting hit by a pitch. Emery pitcher Moore was equally effective as he allowed only a base on balls in the second inning and a hit batsman in the third. Moore struck out eight Bear batters in those first three innings.
In the fourth inning, Bolotas and Jensen both flew out to start the inning before Moore walked. Jewkes got on base due to a Bear error and Mecham followed with a triple to score two runs. Mecham would score on another Bear error. Those turned out to be the only three runs of the game. Moore gave up three base hits in the game and ended up striking out 11 batters.
In the second game of the day, Emery defeated Morgan 7-0 behind the pitching of Bolotas. Braden allowed two base hits in the game.
Emery scored six runs in the second inning and one in the fourth inning. In the second inning after Moore grounded out to start the inning, Jewkes walked, Mecham singled, Payne walked and Stoddard singled and scored two RBIs. Montgomery then got hit by a pitch as did Bell. Bolotas then doubled to left center field and Emery had the lead. Mecham would score Emery’s last run of the game after getting hit by a pitch.
3-A baseball action will continue this week with games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The action will be at Kearns High School, Copper Hills High School and Taylorsville High School. Emery will play Thursday at 11 a.m. at Kearns High School. The game will be against Desert Hills. Emery’s next game would then be Friday also at Kearns High. Game time is pending outcome of the first game.