Emery baseball downs Uintah and Union

By GARY ARRINGTON Sports writer

The Emery High baseball team continued on with preseason games last week and won both they played but they went around it in totally different ways. On Tuesday, Emery traveled to Vernal and defeated the Uintah Utes 14-3 in a game that was never close and on Thursday, Emery hosted Union and won the game 8-7 in the final inning.
The Union game, at least on the schedule, was supposed to be played in Roosevelt but was switched to Emery because the Cougars were still redoing their field and it was not playable. Union jumped out on the Spartans 3-0 after the first inning and 7-0 after the first two innings. Things did not look great at this point.
After starting pitcher Geren Payne gave up five hits in those first two innings, the Cougars only managed a single hit the rest of the game. Payne struck out eight Union batters in the game while walking five batters and hitting one with a pitch. Emery committed two errors.
Emery got three runners on in the first inning as Tappan Draper got a base hit and Nick Stoddard and Payne drew walks but Emery could not get a runner to score. Nathan Mecham singled in the second inning but also to no avail.
In the third inning, Stoddard singled, Payne singled and Kash Jewkes walked to load the bases. Hunter Huntington hit a sacrifice fly to left field scoring Stoddard for Emery’s first run of the game.
Emery scored two more runs in the fourth inning as Mecham got hit by a pitch, Draper singled and Stoddard singled. Emery scored two more runs in the fifth inning. Jewkes hit a home run for the first run and then Dominic Rondinelli got on due to a fielder’s choice, stole second base and when the throw went into centerfield, made it to third base and the coach sent him home and he scored.
In the bottom of the seventh inning and down 7-5, leadoff batter Jewkes walked with the next batter striking out. Chance Huntington also walked and the next batter struck out. Mecham singled and after the centerfielder bobbled the ball, Mecham ended up on second base and the two runners scored tying the game. Gage Bell was intentionally walked to put runners on first and second base.
Both runners then stole the next base to get to scoring position and Draper then hit a ball toward the second baseman that he dropped and Mecham scored and the game was over.
At Uintah, Emery scored four runs in the first inning, four more runs in the second inning, four more runs in the fifth inning and the final two runs in the seventh inning. Uintah scored a single run in the fourth inning and two more in the fifth inning for their only scores.
In the first inning, Mecham, Stoddard and Payne all singled and Jewkes stepped up and hit a homerun. Draper also singled in the inning. In the second inning, Bell doubled, Mecham walked, Payne hit a three-run homerun followed by Jewkes hitting another homerun.
In the fifth inning, Mecham singled, Stoddard doubled, Payne got hit by a pitch and Jewkes hit another homerun. Draper again singled after the homerun. In the final inning, Draper singled and Hunter Huntington singled and both would score in the inning. Bell also had a single and Mecham walked in the inning.
Emery had 18 base hits in this game and committed no errors. Stoddard pitched five innnings, struck out 10 batters and picked up the win. Mecham pitched two innings in this game. Uintah had two hits in the game, both home runs.
Emery hosts Carbon this Tuesday, travels to Richfield to open region play on Friday and then hosts San Juan in a doubleheader on Saturday with games scheduled to start at 1 p.m. The Carbon game starts at 3 p.m. and the Richfield game at 3:30 p.m.