With the regular season for the Emery High baseball team winding down, the Spartans can clinch a tie for the Region 15 championship with a victory against North Sevier this Tuesday in Castle Dale. Emery, the number one ranked 2-A school as rated by the Salt Lake City newspapers, lost a game last week at Grand to the second place region 15 team.
Emery sits at 9-1 and Grand is 8-2 for the region season. Besides the game against the Wolves, Emery will host San Juan the following week in the final game of the season before the playoffs.
For the first time this season the Spartan bats failed as the team managed just three hits against the Grand pitcher. According to several of the players, the team spent too much time chasing curve balls instead of waiting on a fast ball. Dillon Wilstead managed a single in the first inning, Ethan Tuttle had a single in the fifth inning and Brayden Burke had a single in the seventh inning but none of them managed to score.
Emery had a chance in that final inning to tie the score but they failed to capitalize on runners on second and third with nobody out. Burke led off with his single and he was followed by Tuttle getting on base due an error with both advancing to the next base. After Drexler Tanner struck out, Marco Mota hit a fly ball to right field and the base runner failed to score. The next batter, Tanner Lake, also flew out to end the game.
Grand scored their lone run off of an Emery error giving starting pitcher Wilstead his first loss at the high school according to his teammates.
Emery also had two other games last week, a game with San Juan that Emery won 17-2 and a game at Wasatch Academy that the Spartans won 22-0. At Mt Pleasant, Tyson Roper started on the mound for Emery and pitched a no-hit perfect game. Roper allowed no base runners throughout the game as each inning Wasatch Academy went down in order. The game ended in five innings due to the mercy rule. Out of 15 necessary outs, Roper struck out 13 opposing batters with only the lead-off batter twice making contact and grounding out.
Against San Juan, every Emery batter scored at least one run and every batter got on base at least twice in the game. Ridge Nielson led the way with three hits including a double and Nielson also was the starting pitcher and got the win. Roper had a double in the game as did Gavin McDermott and Drexler Tanner.
Against Wasatch Academy, Emery scored one run in the first inning, 12 in the second inning, three in the fourth inning and six in the fourth inning. In that second inning Emery scored 12 runs as 17 batters went to the plate. Emery had six hits, had two batters walk and also had two batters get hit by pitches and four Emery batters got on base because of errors.
In this game Nielson had a double, McDermott had two doubles and Drexler had another double.
Emery is ranked first by the papers with Millard second, Manti third, Delta fourth and Beaver fifth. Millard, Delta and Beaver are in the same region and the three are tied for first with 7-2 region records. Manti and Gunnison are tied for first in the other region with 8-1 records.
For the season, McDermott is tied for first in the 2-A ranks with four homeruns with two other players. He also is tied for first with five triples with one other player and McDermott is tied for fourth in 2-A with eight doubles. Roper is third with nine doubles and Nielson is fifth with seven doubles as the Spartans possess a strong lineup as they prepare to defend their state title.
Emery High’s softball team split region 15 games last week as they are still in the hunt for the 2-A state playoffs coming up in three weeks. Playoffs will be May 8-10 in Spanish Fork. Last week Emery defeated Grand at Grand by the score of 8-1 and then the Spartans returned to Castle Dale to play the number one ranked San Juan Broncos. San Juan won the game by the score of 10-0 as Emery managed only five base hits but the Emery fielders committed six errors to assist the visiting team.
In Moab, Emery scored three times in the second inning, twice more in the third inning, twice more in the fourth inning and a final time in the sixth inning while Grand managed just a single run in the fifth inning. With Ashton Bell on the mound for the Spartans, Grand got just two hits in the game. Bell struck out 10 batters.
Kambrie Hinkins had two homeruns to pace the win while Gentry Noyes added another blast. Bell, Hailee Beckstead and Makayla Clark each hit a double.
Emery played in an all-day tournament in Payson last Saturday but the scores of the five games the Spartans would have played were not available at press time. Other teams playing in Payson were Grantsville, Wasatch, Lehi, Gunnison, San Juan, North Sanpete, Westlake and South Sevier.
San Juan leads region 15 with a 6-0 record with South Sevier and Emery tied for second with 3-3 records. South Sevier and Emery split their games this season.
Grand is fourth with a 2-4 record and North Sevier is last with a 1-5 record.
On the state level, San Juan is ranked first with an 11-4 record followed by Enterprise at 11-3, Manti at 15-0, South Summit at 12-4 and South Sevier at 9-9.
Emery hosts North Sevier this Tuesday afternoon and then travels to Juab on Wednesday for a non-region contest.
Athletic teams busy with spring sports
"Marco Mota returns safely to first after a try by the pitcher to pick him off."