The Spartans took to the baseball field on Tuesday afternoon to welcome the Manti Templars to Castle Dale. Emery is still looking for their first Region 12 win but could not find enough offense to take down the Templars, and Manti handed them a 9-6 loss.

The Spartans are 4-11 overall and 0-5 in league play, with nine games remaining before the playoffs begin on May 8. Emery also sits at No. 9 in the latest RPI.

The Templars were up 3-0 when Hayden Abrams came up to the plate in the bottom of the third with two outs and sent a triple to center, driving in Mason Thornley and Trygg Jensen, and the next batter up was Tyce Larsen who singled to center bringing in Abrams to tie up the score 3-3.

Manti regained the lead by adding three more runs in the fourth. Emery’s Beau Stilson was the first batter up in the bottom half of the inning and reached on a single. With Bronx Olson at the plate, Stilson stole second and third and made his way home to score off an error by the third baseman for the Templars. With a pair of outs, Olson would steal his way to third and score on a Hayden Christiansen double to cut the Manti lead to 6-5. The Templars collected three more runs in the next two innings to push the lead to 9-5. The Spartans were down to their last out in the bottom of the seventh, when Stilson would send a single to left, driving in Jace Frandsen to cut into the Manti lead to 9-6, and that was as close as they would get, as the Templars earned the win.

Stilson was 2-3 with an RBI and a run scored for Emery. Larsen was 3-4 with an RBI, Christiansen was 1-3 with an RBI, and Abrams was 1-4 with a pair of RBIs and scored a run in the Spartan loss.

Abrams got the start on the mound, going four innings, giving up six runs, three earned, on five hits, and striking out five. Trygg Jensen entered in relief, going three and surrendered three runs, one earned, on four hits with two strikeouts.

On Friday, the Spartans will travel to Manti to face the Templars.