Spartan baseball defeats Manti at home and Juab on the road

By GARY ARRINGTON Sports writer

With only two games left in region 12 action this season, the Emery High Spartan baseball team is jockeying for position in the upcoming 3-A state tournament. With five of the six region teams making the tournament this season, actually making it is not an issue. The issue is where does one play on the opening weekend and against whom.
As of right now, Delta leads the action with a 6-1 record followed by Richfield at 4-2. North Sanpete is dead last at 0-6. The other three teams are bunched together with Manti at 4-3, Emery at 4-4 and Juab at 3-5. Emery has region games remaining against Delta at home and North Sanpete on the road.
Last week, Emery defeated Manti for the second time this season, this time by a score of 8-7 and then the Spartans avenged an earlier loss by defeating Juab at Juab by the score of 15-0.
Manti and Emery each scored a single run in the first inning. Manti scored once in the second inning and Emery scored once in the third inning as the two teams were tied at 2-2 after three innings in the seven-inning game. Manti scored twice in the fourth and Emery responded with one run and Manti led 4-3 after four innings. Emery scored two runs in the fifth inning to grab their first lead of the day at 5-4. In the top of the sixth inning, Manti scored four runs to regain the lead but Emery came back in the bottom of the inning to score three runs behind a Geren Payne homerun and Emery led 8-7. Starting pitcher Payne then shut Manti down in the top of the seventh inning and Emery had the win.
Emery had 12 base hits in the game while Payne only gave up six hits to the Templars. Emery did commit three errors in the game that helped Manti score runs as only three of the Manti runs were earned. Both teams left six runners on base.
Five Spartan batters had two hits apiece in the game. Payne had a single besides the homer, had three RBIs and Payne scored twice. Gage Bell had a pair of singles and scored once. Nick Stoddard had two singles and walked once and scored a run. Chance Huntington had a pair of doubles, a base on balls and scored once. Tanner Ewell had a double and a single in the game. Nathan Mecham and Tappan Draper each had a hit for the Spartans.
At Juab, Nathan Mecham started on the mound and stifled the Wasp batters all game long. Mecham gave up four hits and a single walk in the shortened contest.
The Emery batters came ready to play as the first two batters singled for Emery and the Spartans scored four runs in the first inning. Emery scored three more in the second, four in the fourth and four in the fifth inning as the game got over early.
In the first inning, Mecham led off with a single followed by a Bell single. After Payne got hit by a pitch, Tappan Draper walked and all would eventually score in the inning. In the second inning, it was Mecham getting hit by a pitch followed by a Payne single. Both scored on a Kash Jewkes homerun.
In the fourth inning, Mecham got hit for the second time, Bell singled for the second time and Payne then got hit by a pitch for the second time to load the bases. Kash Jewkes then hit his second home run of the day and Jewkes now had seven RBIs in the game.
In the last inning of the game, Jewkes finished it off with a double that scored three Emery base runners and finished the game with ten RBIs, two homers and a double and two runs scored. With the homeruns, Kash in now the 3-A leader in that category and is second in the state with eight home runs this season.
Mecham finished the game with a pair of singles and those two times being hit and scored three times. Bell also scored three times in the game and finished with a pair of singles. Payne scored four times in the game as he got hit twice, singled once and walked once. These are the first three batters of Emery’s lineup and Jewkes follows in the clean-up spot.
Emery plays Gunnison this Tuesday in a non-region game and then will travel to Mt. Pleasant on Friday as they look forward to keeping the Hawks winless in region action.