The Emery Spartan baseball team traveled to Nephi on Saturday to face the Union Cougars in the opening game of the 3A State Baseball Championships. In the game with Union, Emery built up a 7-1 lead going into the of bottom the fifth, Union made it interesting but the Spartans held on for the 7-6 win. In game two they faced the No.1 seed Juab on their home field and Juab would put up six runs in the first two innings pushing Emery to an 11-1 loss and dropping them in the one loss bracket.
In the first game, it was 2-1 headed into the top of the fourth when Wade Stilson came up with a hard ground ball that would get past the shortstop on an error driving in Easton Nielson and Mason Stilson. Gannon Ward came to the plate next sending another ground ball to right that brought in Tyler Stilson and then Jace Mangum came up to the plate sending another grounder to right driving in Wade Stilson and Ward.
Everything went quiet for both Union and Emery until the bottom of the fifth when Union added a run putting the score at 7-3.
In the bottom of the sixth the Union Cougars added two runs making things very interesting at 7-5 and would score one more in the bottom of the seventh on the final out out the game allowing Emery to escape with a one run advantage.
Mangum would earn three RBI’s in the win, Wade Stilson went 2-4 with two RBI’s and two runs scored and Gannon Ward went 3-4 with one run and drove in two.
Oakley Alton would get the start and collect the win on the bump for the Spartans going 5.0 giving up one earned on six hits and struck out three. Ryker Jensen came in to collect the save giving up two earned on four hits and stuck out three.
In game two the Spartans would face the No. 1 seeded Juab Wasps.
The Wasps jumped out to a quick 11-1 lead after the third inning and maintained the lead through the following innings, ending the game in five.
The Spartans could only collect three hits in the loss with Alton going 2-2 and Tyler Stilson went 1-3 earning the only Emery RBI when he drove in Nielson in the third.
Trevin Wakefield got the start going 2.1 innings giving up six earned on eight hits and striking out two. Turner Stoker came in to finish the game with 1.2 innings of work striking out one.
Up next for the Spartans they will face Region 12 foe Grand at Mountain View High School in Orem on Thursday at 1:30. Now that they are in the one loss bracket they will have to run a gauntlet playing five games in three days just to play in the Championships on Saturday knowing the whole time that their next loss will end the season.