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The Emery High baseball team headed to Mesquite over the weekend to open the season. The Spartans played Alta in the first game but could not get the bats going and lost 4-1.
“Our biggest problem is we haven’t got any live bp (battling practice) so no one could hit,” said catcher Jesse Barnett.
The bats came alive on Friday as Emery scored in every inning of their five-inning morning game. The Spartans took on Valley from Las Vegas in what would become a back and forth affair. Emery was up 3-0 in the third when Valley scored two to close the gap. The Spartans answered back with two points of their own in the bottom of the third. Valley then scored four in the fourth to take a 6-5 lead. Emery tied the game in the bottom half and then erupted with five runs in the bottom of the fifth to win 11-6. (The tournament games had time limits due to the number of games on the fields during the day.) Jace Collard had 20 first-pitch strikes through five innings of work while giving up only two earned runs for Emery.
Then, in the afternoon game, the Spartans jumped off to a 4-0 lead over two innings until Virgin Valley from Mesquite scored three runs in the bottom of the third. Emery quickly righted the ship, scoring a single run in both the fourth and fifth to keep Virgin Valley at bay and gain the 6-3 victory. Logan Healy went 4-5 with two doubles, two RBIs and one run scored in the win.
Emery then had a rematch against Alta in the tournament championship game on Saturday. Alta gave the first blow when it scored one run in the first inning. Emery tied the game at one in the fourth when Koda Alton attempted to steal third base and ultimately scored on an throwing error by the catcher. Alta then answered back in the fifth to take a 2-1 advantage. That’s where the game stood when Emery took its last bats in the top of the seventh. The Spartans came storming back, scoring three runs to go up 4-2 with one inning to play. Unfortunately for Emery, it could not record a single out in the bottom half of the seventh as the wheels fell off and the Spartans fell to Alta once more, 5-4.
Emery did earn runner-up honors in the tournament and has to feel good with the results after its limited time outside on the field this early spring. Head coach Rob Smith said as much, “[the weekend was] good considering the circumstances.”
Emery will host a doubleheader against Grand on Wednesday.