Emery softball travels to St. George tourney

By GARY ARRINGTON Sports writer

This season’s Emery High Lady Spartan softball team is young and inexperienced. Last week, the Spartan team traveled to St George for a two-day tournament to help prepare themselves for the fast-approaching region season. This season’s team consists of 18 sophomores and freshmen on the 25 member team roster with five of those sophomores starting for the varsity team.
Both the Emery varsity team and the Emery junior varsity team played five games at the Snow Canyon tournament and each came away with a record of 3-2. The varsity defeated West High, Wasatch High and Manti High and lost to Canyon View and Union. The JV team defeated West, Bountiful and Union and lost to Canyon View and Wasatch.
For the varsity, they started off with a 9-7 victory over the bigger school. West scored a run in the first inning thanks to a pair of Emery errors. West scored five more runs in the third inning as they got three singles and Emery committed another pair of errors. West scored a final run in the fourth inning as Emery committed two more errors.
The Lady Spartans scored a run in the bottom of the first inning as Jaiden Huntington singled and eventually scored. Emery scored twice more in the second inning. Shelby Mason singled, Auminee Bennett singled and Makiah Sherman doubled and scored the two players. Emery added four more runs in the third inning. Huntington singled, Whitney Roper walked, Mason doubled, Bennett doubled and Jeridi Price got on due to an error.
Emery’s final two runs came in the bottom of the fourth inning. MarKette Tanner singled, Huntington walked, Roper singled and Mason singled to drive in the two runs.
In the Canyon View game, Emery spotted the Falcons their eight runs, thanks in part to walks, errors and a hit batsman. Emery scored six runs in the fourth inning and left a runner in scoring position to keep the game close.
In that final inning, Mason got on base to lead off the inning, Bennett was out at first, Price walked and Jolynn Jennings singled to score a run. Sherman singled, Tanner singled, Huntington singled and Roper tripled for three RBI’s. The last two batters got out to end the inning and the game.
Against Wasatch, Emery scored twice in the second inning, three more times in the third and once in the fourth to edge Wasatch. Roper walked and Bryton Hess doubled and both would eventually score in the second inning.
In the third inning, Huntington doubled, Hess got on due to Wasp error, Mason got hit by a pitch and Price doubled. In the final inning, Sherman singled with Tanner hitting into a fielder’s choice. Roper singled home Tanner for the winning run.
Against Manti, it was a game of long ball. After not seeing any hit out of the park, there were five homeruns in this game with four of those coming off the bats of Emery players. Whitney Roper had a two-run shot in the first inning followed by Jeridi Price having a three-run shot later in the same inning.
In the top of the fourth inning, Manti’s clean-up hitter hit a grand slam to give Manti the lead for the first time. In the bottom of the fourth inning, Auminee Bennett hit a two-run shot and to end the game, Whitney Roper cleared the right field fence for another homer and scored three runs for the win.
Emery scored 10 runs on seven base hits. Besides the home runs, Hess doubled and Sherman and Tanner singled. Emery assisted Manti with their scoring by committing several errors in the game. Six of the Templar runs in the game were unearned. These things should correct themselves with experience.
In the final game, Emery and Union took extra innings before Union got away with a one-point win. All in all, it was a good couple of days in St George even though it could have been warmer. Preseason experience will help get the team to where it needs to be before tough region play begins.