| Erika Potts sends a ball to the fence. She has been a big part of the Carbon offense that lifed them over the top against the Emery Spartans. |
As was the case most of the season, a couple of errors made the difference in the outcome of the softball game. For a change, this time it was a pair of critical errors for Emery that let Carbon take home the bragging rights with a 5-4 upset win over the Spartans.
Emery’s losses have come few and far between. The Dinos have struggled, at times playing great and other times losing focus and stumbling. But in a Carbon-Emery match-up, anything can happen.
Playing in yet another blustery, cold game, the Dinos let the Spartans jump out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first. Bats that were as cold as the wind left the Dinos scoreless until the fourth when Whitney Williams led off the inning with a blast over the fence to cut the score to 3-1. Emery had a shot to score in the fourth. They had a runner on second and the batter blasted a drive into right, but a great play by right fielder Britanny Gustas to throw a bullet into Williams at the plate, resulted in the runner being tagged out at the plate.
Neither team could put up anything in the fifth. With bases loaded for Emery, Carbon pitcher, Paige Pinedo delivered a wild pitch to the back stop. Williams scrambled and scooped the ball back to Pinedo who tagged out the runner trying to score.
With their chances to score winding down, Carbon took advantage of a lead-off walk by Gustas to do some damage. Kelsey Gillespi hit a sac fly to move Gustas to second and Williams popped a short fly to right to put runners on first and second.
Erika Potts hit a screaming line drive to short that was missed to drive home a run. Then, Pinedo stepped up and banged a three run drive over the fence to give the Dinos a 5-3 lead.
In the seventh, Emery pitcher, Leslie Lake smashed a home run over to try and help her cause. Hanging on to a tenuous one run lead, the Carbon defense made the plays to finish off the Spartans. Pinedo iced the game with a strike out to shut down the Spartans.
“This was a good way to finish it (region play),” stated Coach Tony Pinedo, “Our girls have a lot of momentum right now. We have made our mistakes, but for the last four games, the girls have been playing some solid ball.”
Juan Diego swept Delta on Thursday to move Carbon into the third spot. Delta and North Sanpete are tied at the bottom and have to play each other. The winner will make the play-offs, the loser is out. Carbon and the winner of that game will end up tied for third. Carbon has lost the tie breaker to each of those teams and will end up in the fourth slot no matter what.