Emery softball found themselves on the road in Grantsville for the opening round of the 3A State Softball Championships. Dropping the first game to South Summit 8-5, Emery fell into the one-loss bracket and has to work their way back, starting in the contest with Ben Lomond, keeping their state title hopes alive getting the 15-0 win.
The Lady Spartans closed out the regular season 13-11 with a 4-4 region mark and earned the No. 8 seed.
Taking on the South Summit Wildcats (13-11, 5-3, No.9) in their first game of the playoff, the Wildcats jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the top of the first. The Spartans would get to the pitching of South Summit, collecting 14 hits, but could never catch-up with the Wildcats.
Emery came up in the bottom of the fourth, putting up a pair, but then turned around and gave up three more runs to the Wildcats in the top of the fifth. The Lady Spartans came back to cut the South Summit lead to 7-5, but that was as close as they would get, taking the 8-5 loss.
Shannon Johnson was 3-4 with a pair of runs and an RBI. Four other Lady Spartans Rheagan Rhoten, Emjae Adair, Aspen Taylor and Madi Bunnell all went 2-4 at the plate.
On the mound, Taylor got the start going 4.2 with eight hits, five earned run and three strikeouts. Rhoten came in going 2.1 with a hit, one earned and striking out one.
Emery had to move on quickly because, immediately following the loss, they had to turn around and face No. 16 Ben Lomond. Emery was ready for this one ending, it in four with, a 10 run fourth inning closing the book on the Scots, 15-0.
The game was pretty quiet until the Lady Spartans up by five, went off, putting up 10 runs and none were bigger than in the fourth when Jalynn Fox came up with Madi Thomas and Katelyn Nielson on base sending a triple to right field and brought them both across pushing the score to 14-0, a Tailynn Minchey single drove in Fox to close out the game 15-0 in the fourth inning.
Taylor once again had a great day at the plate and on the mound , getting the complete game win giving up just two hits and striking out five. At the plate she went 2-3 with three RBI’s and a run score.
Four other Lady Spartans:Fox, Rhoten and Bunnell each registered a pair of RBI’s.
Now Emery will await the loser of the Canyon View/Morgan game. The Lady Spartans will be back on the field at 2:30 on Thursday at the Spanish Fork Softball Complex.