Spring sports: Emery softball and baseball

By GARY ARRINGTON Sports Writer

The 2013 high school spring sports season started off with a bang for Emery High School as the baseball season began with two games and the softball season began with a game against rival Carbon. The Emery High Lady Spartans opened their season with a game against Carbon High with the Spartans defeating the Dinos 6-3. Senior Jeridi Price started the game on the mound for Emery and pitched the Spartans to the win. Price pitched five innings and struck out four batters over those five innings while getting two-thirds of her pitches in as strikes. She gave up two runs. Sophomore Ashton Bell closed the game on the mound by pitching the final two innings, giving up a single run and getting two strike outs.
Bryton Hess and Shandee Jewkes led the Spartans offensively as they each had two base hits in the game. Both of Jewkes’ hits were doubles with one double from Hess. RBI’s in the game were by Jewkes, Auminee Bennett, Jaiden Huntington and Ashton Bell. Emery had a total of eight base hits in the game.
The Emery boys opened the season by playing Uintah High with Emery winning 6-5. Emery then hosted Manti and defeated the Templars 9-2. Emery was supposed to travel to Sanpete County but the Templar field was unplayable.
Against Uintah, Carson Healy opened on the mound and got the win while against Manti, Baylee Bolotas was the starting pitcher and got the win.
Against Manti, Emery scored three runs in the first inning highlighted by doubles off the bats of Ethan Tuttle and Gavin McDermott. Emery scored two more runs in the third inning with Tappan Draper getting hit by a pitch and Tuttle and Bolotas hitting singles.
Drexler Tanner scored in the fourth inning after leading off with a double for the Spartans sixth run of the game. In the sixth inning, Emery scored three more times with Tanner, Draper, Tuttle and Dillon Wilstead all getting hits in the inning.
Against Uintah, Emery scored a single run in the first inning after Ridge Nielson got hit by a pitch. Emery scored another single run in the third inning after Marco Mota hit a double and Draper singled. Emery scored another run in the fourth inning and another in the fifth inning. Tanner, Mota and Tuttle all singled in the fifth inning to get the run.
Emery scored two runs in the sixth inning to grab the lead for good. Bolotas got hit by a pitch, Tanner singled and Mota hit his second double of the game.
The two ball teams continued their season by traveling to weekend tournaments. Baseball traveled to Montrose, Colo. and played three games, winning two of those. Softball traveled to St George, played five games and went 2-3.
The Lady Spartans lost to ALA 13-8 to open their tournament. The team did bang out 14 base hits including doubles by Shandee Jewkes, Auminee Bennett, Jaiden Huntington and Kambree Hinkins. Ashton Bell had three base hits in the game.
Emery then defeated Summit Academy 10-1 after picking up 10 base hits. Huntington had a homerun, Bryton Hess and Gentry Noyes had triples and Jewkes, Jeridi Price, Bell, Makayla Clark and Hinkins had doubles. Millard then defeated Emery 9-3 with Emery having only five hits including three by Price.
Emery then lost to Delta 9-5 and closed out the stay with a win against Desert Hills by the score of 9-7. Huntington had another homerun against Delta with Hess hitting a double. Bennett had a triple against Desert Hills.
In Colorado, Emery defeated Paonia Friday morning by the score of 7-2 with Ethan Tuttle being the winning pitcher. Emery had seven base hits with Dillon Wilstead hitting a triple. Friday afternoon, Emery defeated Weld Central by the score of 12-2. Baylee Bolotas was the winning pitcher and the team picked up 14 hits in the game. Gavin McDermott had three base hits, one a double and Wilstead also had a double.
On Saturday, Emery played in Delta and closed out the road trip with a 7-4 loss. Emery had seven hits with Drexler Tanner having the only extra base hit, a double.
The baseball team also played another game against Uintah during the week, a game that turned out to be another home game since the Uintah field was also unplayable. Emery defeated Uintah for the second time of the season, this time by the score of 7-3. The winning pitcher was Bolotas. Tappan Draper had a triple in the game and McDermott had a double. Wilstead went three for four in the game and nine for 14 during the week as the sophomore is hitting the ball really well.
In the latest action on the diamonds for the two Emery teams, the baseball team opened region play successfully by traveling to Richfield and defeating the Wildcats 11-4. Emery also played two 3-A teams closely before losing two games. Emery lost to Cedar 1-0 and to Carbon 11-3.
Emery led the Carbon game 3-1 going into the top of the final inning when some hits, some errors and some walks led to the loss. Emery actually out hit the Dinos 10 to 9 in the game. Gavin McDermott and Drexler Tanner had doubles in the game.
Against Richfield, Emery scored in five straight innings in securing the region win. The Wildcats committed eight errors in the game to contribute to their downfall. Tappen Draper had a triple in the game and Marco Mota had a double.
The softball team traveled to Beaver and lost to the Beavers 6-1 and then the Lady Spartans hosted Juab and lost in that game 12-3. Bryton Hess had a homerun in the game for Emery and Jaiden Huntington had a double, both players also singled in the game.