The Emery Lady Spartans softball team wrapped up the 2016 regular season at the end of April as they blasted Piute for a season sweep. Even with an impressive region win to end the regular season, the Lady Spartans failed to qualify for the state tournament.

Fielding a team with only three seniors, Emery had no choice but to rely on youth during what was expected to be a difficult season. Even with the expected growing pains the Lady Spartans started the season 5-5. Appearing ahead of the process, the team was bit by the injury bug as three starting pitchers went down.

“We started off very well and the we had injuries to our three pitchers. It seemed like after that it set the tone for what the rest of the year was going to be,” said head coach Shaun Bell. “Our team was very young and all of our pitchers were either freshman or sophomore. They were doing well and as soon as they got injured it took a lot out of us.”

After the 5-5 start to open the season the Lady Spartans suffered losses in 13 of the final 15 games, with eight of those losses coming in region play. The lone two wins came in lopsided fashion against region foe Piute, but it was not enough to propel the team to the state tournament, as they finished two games behind North Sevier for the final playoff spot.

Even with the season cut short Bell believes he saw growth behind the underclassmen that will play a pivotal role for the team next season. The lack of seniors and injuries allowed several girls to expand their role.

“With the injuries we seen some other girls who probably would not have gotten to play much, but they proved they could play at the varsity level,” Bell said. “Next year we will have a few more seniors and a whole bunch of juniors that have a lot of experience.”

Kelsey Reeve, Jacie Huntington and Jessica Mason were the three lone seniors on this year’s team. Providing solid production offensively, all three girls proved to be the vocal leaders for the young group. While the team failed to meet their goal of qualifying for the state tournament, Bell was more than happy with their contributions.

“Those three girls gave us everything they had for four years and for us not to make the state tournament it was tough,” said Bell. “They came out and worked hard and they were leaders for this team throughout the year. They kept our team on the up by working super hard every single day.”

Overall the team finished 7-18 during the regular season, sweeping Summit Academy in non-league action at the beginning of the year. Bell noted that only a few teams are lucky enough to end the season with a win, and that is something he expects his team to build off of.

“I think it left the team on a big up and now we can use it as motivation going into summer ball,” “We’ll try to hit four or five tournaments throughout the state and wrap it up in St. George around November. Hopefully the girls will mature and we will find a few to take the rolls of the seniors we are losing.”

Listen to coach Shaun Bell’s complete season wrap up interview here: