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Show 18 Vernal Express Wednesday, May 22, 1996 First title in 25 years DSasehall team Mmigs heme 3 state tittle by Eric F. Pye Sports Writer State champions . . . has a nice ring to it and it couldn't sound any better than being hung on the 1996 Uintah High School baseball team. Oh yeah, don't ask any of the players or coaches if they were surprised, sur-prised, or if luck played a part in their run to the championship they weren't and it didn't! "After the victory over Emery the previous Saturday, we felt we were in the drivers seat heading into the tournament last weekend," head coach Brent Labrum said, "we knew from playing all but one of the teams in the tournament we had the deepest and strongest pitching staff. Coach DeCol and I felt if the kids played decent defense and came up with a few timely hits, we would be right there for the championship." champi-onship." Guess what? All of the above Coach Labrum presents trophy Lady Utes come up short in by Eric F. Pye Sports Writer Because of the nature of sports and athletic competition, one can never be one hundred percent sure of anything. But if there was one sure thing as teams from baseball, Softball, soccer, track and tennis headed into state competitions last weekend, it was that the Lady Ute fastpitch Softball team was the heavy favorite to take home a title in 3A last weekend in Cedar City. It diJn't happen. For whatever the reason, Uintah 'settled for a third place tic with Emery. Maybe it was the emotional trauma trau-ma the team had endured ax their popular coach fought for her position, posi-tion, Maybe it was the huge dust storm they played through in their opening game loss to Emery Thunday, Maybe they were just 'off a hit during the tournament. Whatever the rcawin, the dominant rv f ,1 ; - WW" " piayo (torn both Emery and mentioned scenarios panned out al- most as if they had been scripted beforehand. The Ute pitching staff did not disappoint dis-appoint although there were one or two 'pleasant surprises' living up to pre-tournament expectations. Over four games, Ute pitchers held opponents to 2.25 runs per game. The staff recorded 21 strikeouts compared to 15 walks and just 19 hits throughout the tournament. Ute pitchers recorded complete games in three of their four games. Defensively, Uintah committed just seven errors and almost matched that number with five double dou-ble plays. Offensively, the team averaged av-eraged eight runs a game off just eight hits per game along with four walks and five strikeouts. You talk about timely, the team couldn't have played more opportunistic ball. The most timely hitting for Uintah came at the turning point of the to Principal Kent Bunderson. emotion after the tournament was disappointment. "Wc went down there to win a championship," head coach Shuryce Prcstwich said, "not because winning win-ning was our focus. We truly felt wc were the best team and anything other than a championship would be less than what we were capable of achieving." Indeed, the team had held the number one ranking in 3A all season sea-son and went into the tournament with high expectations. Unfortunately for the Lady Utes, great expectations arc not always met with great results. After enduring a late night executive execu-tive session by the Uintah School Board to determine if their conch would be retained for next year, the team traveled the following day to Cedar City to prepare for Emery. What they ran into was a howling wind and dust storm and a hot Lady Spartan pitcher. "It was a combina l - v i f - a - - . f i '.1,1 V r : 'J Uintah brace themseivei during dust club's fortunes and it came against the Utes biggest rival Union. Uintah began the tournament by dispatching Carbon Thursday 4-1. Starter Shane Smuin went the distance dis-tance in a two-hit effort. The win moved Uintah into the semi-finals against arch rival Union who had beaten Uintah in their two region contests. The game Friday afternoon after-noon appeared to be headed in the same direction. The Cougars established estab-lished a 7-3 lead off Ute starter Jason Culpepper and held it heading into the bottom of the final (seventh) (sev-enth) inning. Uintah did not begin their incredible incredi-ble comeback until there were two outs and nobody on base. Things can't get any more bleak in baseball. base-ball. The Ute rally began with senior Matt Massey singling to left. After advancing on a wild pitch, Matt took third on Tyler Gibbons' single. Tucker Caldwell then doubled to left-center, scoring both runners. Rory Mortensen then singled to right, scoring Caldwell. Coach Labrum then subbed speedy Andy Long in for Mortensen representing represent-ing the tying run, while Union brought in Dustin Davis to pitch for Fellsted. Dave Lawson then singled down the left field line, moving Long to second. It was then tragedy struck the Cougars. On Davis' next pitch, the Cougar hurler snapped the humorous humor-ous bone of his pitching arm during the delivery, sending the ball wildly out of control towards the third baseline fence. Long came all the way around from second base to tie the game. It was later discovered Davis had a tumor on the bone, causing it to snap. While the Ute offense came to the rescue, the Ute defense had stiffened stiff-ened considerably after sophomore pitcher Billy Espindola took the mound in the fourth inning in relief of Culpepper. The team turned two double plays to halt Union scoring threats. Billy's numbers were near See Baseball page 19 tion of their pitcher being right on and us being off just a bit, Coach Prcstwich said, "you can't win ball-games ball-games if you can't hit the ball and wc couldn't get anything going against them." The Lady Utes had just three bascrunncrs throughout the 5-0 loss. Anncka Johnson reached first on an error in the first inning. Chcridan Horrocks reached first on the first of Uintah's two hits in the third and Dcanna Christcnscn reached second on her double in the fifth and final inning. Despite the lack of production at the plate, the team was still in the contest. Uintah pitcher Jancll Jensen was doing her usual number on the opposition as the teams entered en-tered the fourth tied at 0-0. Emery scored their first run in the fourth on one hit and on error. Still, entering the fifth, Uintah was down just 1-0 and Jensen had thrown a one hitter up to that point. In the fifth, Jensen went after a hit ball, in storm in first round ol stale. The Uintah state championship baseball team receives recognition from student body for their 1 996 3A championship effort during final senior assembly at Uintah High School. Pye & Henderson grab second straight titles State champions lead tennis team to 3rd place by Eric F. Pye Sports Writer True to head tennis coach Kevin Dickson's pre-tournament prediction, predic-tion, the Uintah High School tennis team placed third at the just completed com-pleted 3A state competition. But it was the way the team took third that had Coach Dickson gushing about the team's performance. "Everyone there was looking completely past us. Nobody gave our kids a chance of being one of the contenders. Not only did we contend, but I think everyone of the players had their best matches of the season at state. I don't think we could have played much better than we did," Dickson said. The final team results had Park City and Dixie tied for the championship champi-onship with 1 1 points each. Uintah and Lehi tied for third with 8 points each. Snow Canyon was a distant fifth with six points. Leading the way for Uintah was the repeat state championship doubles dou-bles team of Dustin Pye and Brandon Henderson. Not only did Pye and Henderson defend the state title they won last year, in the process, pro-cess, the Ute duo becanie the first tennis players in Uintah High School history to win two tennis titles ti-tles and they did it without dropping drop-ping a set in the tournament See Tennis page 21 title bid juring her ribs and affecting her ability to throw with her normal motion. It was all Emery needed. The Lady Spartans exploded for four runs on four hits as they broke the game open and pulled off the upset. Uintah was down, but not out. The girls came back the next day (Friday) and unleashed a 10 hit, eight run barrage against Dixie to take an 8-5 victory, advancing to the next round in the double elimination elimi-nation affair. Dawna Wallace and Liz Cranncy led the Lady Ute attack with three and two hits respectively. The team carried the momentum from the Dixie win into their next game immediately after against North Sanpete. Again, the Lady Ute bats were red hot as was Jensen, who had a no-hittcr going into the See Lady Utet page 19 Utah Summer Games swim workouts The Uintah Recreation Association and Uintah High Swim Team coach Kaihy Worthcn will be offering swimming workouts for anyone interested in competing In the Utah Summer Games regional competition. The regional competition will be held at the Uintah Recreation indoor in-door pool on Friday, May 31 and Saturday, June I. This competition will involve swimmers from Utah, Wasatch, Carbon, Duchesne, Uintah and Daggett. Practices wilt be held ev cry weekday at the indoor pool from 5-6:30 p.m. Cost for each workout is St payable each day. Coach Worthcn witt be on deck each day to help with individual workouts and help improve individual strokes, fat more information please stop by the poot during practice or contact the indoor pool at 789-5T75. f' ' . ' w 1 t - ,v: V f " "... - v . : 1 : ' I irr' ...i..r,.,..,i-;M,fit;, in il llilMt Dustin Pye flips a backhand overhead during semifinal victory. Long leads track team to 5th place by Eric F. Pye Sports Writer If everything had fallen perfectly into place, the combined Uintah High School track team might have had a chance to place in the top three for the boys and lop ten for the girls. As it turned out, both teams finished a tad off at the 3A state championships at BYU last weekend week-end with the boys placing fifth and the girls 12th. The final team tally on the boy's side had Pine View running away with the meet, totaling I26.S points. Park City finished second with 81, Cedar City third at 67, Delia fourth with 64 and Uintah fifth with S3.S. Delta won the girl's competition wiih 112, followed by Pine View with 92 and Park City with 77. The Lady Utes finished with 13 team points. Pacing the boy's team, as has been the case all season, wni Eli Long, Eli won three events and ran a leg of the third plate 4 X 4(X) relay team, accounting for 36 of the team's 33.3 point. Mare Chtfstsnsefl (left) trtei to i "Eli has been incredible all season long. I think he only lost one race in 1 all the big meets he competed in ' and he really came through at state 1 when the pressure was on," head ' coach Gary Galley said. Not only did Long come through in the two events he was favored '. (110 and 3(X) hurdles) to win, he pulled the upset in the long jump to grab the title in that event also with a leap of 2 IT his best of the year. The long jump was Uintah's : best event of the meet. Jason Belts placed sixth with a 20'2" effort and Greg Hatch placed eighth with a 19 9 34" leap. The other steady performer for the Utes was Chad Galley. Giad scored points for the team in the 400 (fourth), 4 X 100 relay (fourth), 300 hurdles (seventh) and 4 X 400 relay which placed third. "Chad was busy to say the least. He would have done better if a couple of his events hadn't been run hacK-lo-b.uk. He was a very tired athlete by the end of Saturday's finals," Co.ult Galley' See Track page 22 , maVe up gnwnd m 400 final. |