Emery baseball wins four games this week

By GARY ARRINGTON Sports Writer

Three blow-outs followed by a nail biter and the Emery High Spartan baseball team won all four games they played to stay perfect in region 15 action and the Spartans showed why they are one of the favorites to win a championship this season. Emery defeated Wasatch Academy by the score of 18-0 followed by the score of 28-0 in a double-header at the Spartan field on Tuesday.
Emery traveled to Union to play the Cougars in a non-region contest and the Spartans returned home with a 14-1 win. Emery then faced region foe South Sevier and the Rams threw their ace at the Spartans but Emery countered by throwing one of their aces and Emery won the close game 3-2.
Senior Dillon Wilstead kept the Rams off stride the entire game as he gave up just a single base hit that hit was a homerun that scored both of their runs, struck out nine and only walked two. Wilstead faced just three batters in all but the first and seventh inning as it was three up, three down in five straight innings. South Sevier’s only other base runner got to first due to catcher’s interference on a foul ball.
Emery scored a single run in the first inning and two more in the fifth inning. In the first, Ridge Nielson led off for Emery with a single and would eventually score. Emery had just four base hits in the game and Nielson had two of them.
After the Spartans went down one-two-three in the second, third and fourth innings, Tanner Lake got hit by a pitch to lead off the fifth inning. Next batter Easton Gordon then singled to put runners at first and second. Race Nielson then advanced the runners. After the final batter in the lineup got out, Ridge singled driving in both of the base runners and Emery had their first lead of the game.
Mark Debry got Emery’s final hit in the sixth inning.
Wasatch Academy was out of both games as quickly as they both began. Emery scored 13 runs in the first inning of the first game and 21 runs in the first inning of the second game as Emery left no doubt who was going to win the games. Against Union, Emery scored in each inning with the exception of the fifth as they cruised to an easy victory over a 3-A team. Emery had 54 base hits in the three games to go with their 60 runs. Dillon, in the second game of the doubleheader, had three triples in the first inning and a double in the second inning.
In the Union game, extra base hits were by Bryce Dugmore and Ridge with a double each and by Bowdie Jacobsen with a triple. In the first Wasatch game, doubles were hit by Wilstead, Mark Debry and Jordan Baletka with Ethan Tuttle hitting a triple and Ridge hitting a homerun. In the second Wasatch game, Ridge had two doubles, Tuttle had a double and a triple and Tristan Deabenderfer had a double.
Emery is set apart as a high school team by the quality and the quantity of their pitching. In the week’s first game, Ethan Tuttle picked up the win as he pitched a one-hitter and a shutout. Tuttle struck out 11 batters in five innings. In the second game, Ridge pitched to start and Debry closed the game out and the two combined for another one-hitter over five innings. The two of them struck out 12 batters. Dugmore picked up the win at Union and gave up five base hits in the contest.
Emery is ranked number one in 2-A this season ahead of Enterprise, Manti, Delta and South Sevier. Emery leads region 15 with a 6-0 record. North Sevier is 4-2, followed by South Sevier at 2-2, Grand at 2-3, San Juan at 1-2, Wasatch Academy at 0-2 and Monticello at 0-4.
Emery will have a return matchup with South Sevier this Tuesday in Monroe and then the Spartans will face Uintah in a non-region game at Uintah on Wednesday before the team goes to spring break over the weekend.