The early struggles for the Emery Spartans baseball team continued as they opened up region play with an 11-1 setback to the Grand Red Devils Tuesday afternoon in Moab.

Grand jumped on Emery right out of the gate scoring four runs in the bottom of the first inning. Emery managed to chop the lead to three in the top of the fourth, but Grand immediately answered with three more runs to put the game out of reach.

Emery once again struggled to find rhythm offensively, accumulating just two hits during the contest. Easton Gordon and Race Nielson both registered hits. Nielson provided the only RBI of the night, scoring Gordon to avoid the shutout.

Tel Gardner was pegged with the loss on the mound, giving up four early runs from the starting role. As a team Emery accumulated several errors on key plays, which allowed Grand to pull away. Tuesday's setback marks the third straight for the Spartans, dropping their overall season record to 1-4.

The Spartans will have an opportunity to get back on the winning track as they return to the field on Friday with a visit to Carbon High School. Friday will mark the only contest this year between the two varsity teams. Start time for the game is set for 3:00 pm.