Emery made it through the first two rounds in the 3A State Championships, and on Friday morning, they faced their most formidable opponent so far, the No. 1 ranked Grantsville Cowboys. This team ended the Lady Spartans’ season last year. This time, the Cowboys mounted a big comeback to take the 9-8 win. Falling into the lower bracket, the Spartans faced Region 12 foe Richfield and earned a 9-0 victory, keeping their Championship hopes alive.

In the first game on Friday, the Spartans faced Grantsville. Emery led most of the contest, but the Cowboys found another gear and claimed the 10-9 win.

Emery had revenge on its mind, coming out in the second inning looking to get on the board. The inning began with a walk and an error that put two on. Aleeyah Cowley stepped into the batter’s box and sent a double to left field, and Elly Stilson crossed the plate. Cowley would come home on an error by the third baseman. A Kali Jensen single drove Kaitlyn Thomas in for a score to put the Emery lead at 3-0. Elli Stoker doubled to center, driving in TaiLynn Minchey and Jensen, and then one batter later, Katelyn Nielson knocked a line drive to right, bringing Morgan Tuttle home, pushing the score to 6-0. Emery added a run in the third to get the 7-0 lead.

Grantsville cut into the Spartan lead, adding two runs in the fourth. The Lady Spartans added one more run in the sixth to take an 8-4 lead going into the bottom of the inning.

Grantsville wasn’t ready to give up, and it showed in the bottom of the seventh, scoring five runs, handing the Lady Spartans a 9-8 loss.

Elli Stoker went 2-3 with a pair of RBIs for Emery. Nielson was 2-4 with an RBI, and Cowley was 2-4 with a pair of runs and an RBI.

Kallee Lake pitched a complete game and gave up 10 runs, four earned, on seven hits with nine strikeouts.

The loss dropped them into the lower bracket, meaning they must fight back to the Championship Game, which started with a game against Richfield.

Emery looked great in the game with the Wildcats, holding them scoreless to take a 9-0 win.

Emery added a couple of runs in the second and third, but used the fifth to put some serious distance between them and Richfield.

Stoker led things off with a double to center, Nielson came up to bat next and earned a double on the ground to center to bring Tuttle home, who had entered as a courtesy runner for Stoker. Now it was Bailey Luke’s turn to get in on the action as she would send a single to left that drove in Hadley Larsen and Nielson. Hadley Grimm sent a single to center, moving Luke to second.

Thomas sent a grounder to short to bring in Luke, and Minchey was up next and doubled to center, and Grimm would score to put Emery in the lead, 7-0. Stoker grounded out to third, but that gave Thomas just enough time to score. During the next at bat, Minchey would score on a wild pitch to give the Lady Spartans the 9-0 lead, and then it was time for Emery’s defense to close out the Wildcats to earn the victory.

Luke was 2-4 with a pair of RBIs and two runs scored for Emery. Minchey went 2-4 with 2 RBIs and scored one run, and Stilson was 2-4 with an RBI.

Lake got the start, going four innings, giving up two hits and three strikeouts. Allison Jeffs came in to close the game, surrendering three hits and striking out three.

After the win over Richfield, the Lady Spartans had to turn around to face the South Summit Wildcats, a team they had already beaten on Thursday, 8-4. Emery did what they had to, taking a 2-1 win.

The Spartans only needed to score a pair of runs thanks to another dominating performance on the bump by Lake.

The first run came off a solo homerun by Stoker with two outs in the first inning. Moving into the bottom of the third with two outs and with Luke at the plate, Minchey scored on a steal of home to put the score at 2-0, and then they would turn the game over to Lake.

Stoker was 1-3 with a run scored and an RBI for Emery. Jensen and Lake were both 1-3, Cowley was 1-2, and Minchey had a run scored.

Lake was fantastic on the mound and ended her day with a complete game win with no runs on seven hits and struck out two.

Emery lives to play another day and will face the team that loses the game between Morgan and Grantsville on Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m.