Last week may have been a transformation week for the Emery High Lady Spartans as they traveled to St George and played in the March Warm-Up Classic softball tournament.
Emery was pitted in pool play against a couple of smaller schools than themselves but also three schools bigger than themselves, two of those much bigger than themselves.
The Ladies handled themselves very well as they went through pool play undefeated before losing to Pine View in the championship game.
Emery thoroughly dominated their opposition throughout the first five games as they scored an accumulative 76 runs and banged out 71 base hits while limiting their opponents to just 17 runs and 21 base hits.
Emery played Park City, Bonanza of Las Vegas and El Dorado of Las Vegas on Friday and won those three games by the scores of 17-1, 16-6 and 12-4.
Bailey Huggard pitched the first 2 1/3 innings and Madison McCandless pitched the final two outs of the game and those two combined to throw a no-hitter.
An error allowed the only run of the ballgame and that was on the second to last batter of the game.
The two pitchers gave up no walks and struck out four batters.
Emery had 13 hits in the game with Addy Healy hitting a double and Jayla Weston and Ambree Bennett hitting homeruns. Singles were hit by Healy, Megan Dawes, Bennett, Huggard, Taileigh Guymon, Carlie Robinson, Larissa Thompson with two and Weston with two.
Against Bonanza, Huggard and Kayla Price allowed five hits and six runs. Bennett, McCandless and Regan Rasmussen hit doubles with Healy, Bennett, Huggard, Morgann Donaldson, Robinson and Clark each hitting two singles and Guymon, Rasmussen and McCandless each hitting one single.
Against El Dorado, Braylee Clark and Kayla Price pitched the game and they allowed six base hits and 4 runs. Both pitchers are freshmen. Carlie Robinson hit a homerun in the game and Healy, Huggard, Donaldson, Weston and Adri Childs each hit a double with Childs hitting a pair of them. Bennett had three singles as did Madisyn Alton, Childs had two and Huggard, Donaldson and Clark each had one.
On Saturday Emery defeated North Summit 18-3 as Huggard pitched a complete game allowing six base hits and three runs while striking out seven and walking just one. Healy, Huggard and Dawes hit triples while Bennett and Childs each had a double. Singles were hit by Healy, Bennett, Huggard, Donaldson, Weston and Alton and Robinson with two each.
In Emery’s other Saturday game, the Spartans defeated Kanab by the score of 13-3 as Huggard again pitched a complete game. Bailey gave up four hits, struck out eight and walked just two batters. Weston hit a grand slam home run over the centerfield fence in the first inning to spark the team.
Healy, Huggard and Weston also had doubles. Singles were hit by Healy, Huggard, Donaldson, Robinson, Weston, Dawes and Alton.
Emery then played Pine View in the championship game and the Spartans went down to defeat by the score of 11-4. The score was 2-1 after four innings before the Panthers pulled away for the win. Huggard pitched the first four innings and Clark closed out the game. Emery still had nine base hits in the game but just couldn’t score the same runs. Donaldson led the way with three singles and Healy, Bennett, Huggard, Robinson, Clark and Rasmussen each had a single.
All-in-all it was a good week for Emery and hopefully this style of play will continue throughout the season.
This week Emery will travel to Grand for the opening of region play and also will travel to Altamont.
Lady Spartan softball in championship of tourney
Bailey Huggard is one of the Emery pitchers.