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Show Cat$ beat Emory 3-1 1 1( Union and Soutfh Sevier : clash tfor fitfle Friday N- For the first time since 1, the -Ynion Cougars will be competing in :- Z state championship basebaU game ; W what made this baseball dream a 5 rtditv is the Cougars' 3-1 triumph over 4 7 " Saturday in the 2-A state semi-Wsin semi-Wsin Provo. Union will battle South Lvier Friday at 1 p.m. on the ri2ham Young University baseball fmondforthe2-At.tle.South Sevier Cached the title game when they beat Grand County High School of Moab, I Emery grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bot-' bot-' om of the third inning, but that wasn't he Cougars' main concern as they ,-ere worried about ace pitcher, Lon-ue Lon-ue Sammaripa's leg. Leamaster was nalKed and Lund struck out. aroaster moved to second on a balk m(J then .Mired singled up the middle ff Sammaripa's leg. The ball nailed Jammaripa above the knee on his lugh Sammaripa took a five minute . ak and refused to leave the game I tnuch to the relief of his Union rooters. amaster scored on a passed ball to Vive Emery a 1-0 lead. However. Sam-naripa Sam-naripa recovered to strike out Shor- Ml and got Mortenson to fly out to get J be Cougars out of a jam. Union was running out of chances to rin the game as they had only two in-lings in-lings left in the ball game and Sam-i Sam-i naripa came to the rescue when he ' jlasted the ball into the outfield for a ground rule double in the top of the sixth inning. Brett Cramer was walk- d and Chad Richard came through jrith a single to right field to drive in Sammaripa with the game tying run s it 1-1. Cramer moved to third on the single by Richard. Kenny Anderton struck out, but ;3ryan Eldredge put down a perfect $)unt and Cramer scored on a suicide X squeeze to give the Union Cougars eir first lead in the game at 2-1. , Richard moved to third base. Rich )ladlock hit a chopper up the middle o send borne Richard with a 3-1 lead. Jhane Neilsen singled, but Eldredee stopped short between third and home as he thought Neilsen was called out at first base and was tagged out at home plate. "Emery's pitcher,' Ferd Allred, kept the ball down low and it was outside and Sammaripa hit it to right center. We needed something like that to get us going. We had chances to score earlier, but didn't come up with the big hit," stated Union baseball coach Brent Fieldsted. "Richard got a big hit for us that scored Sammaripa to tie up the game and put men on first and third. I thought if we got a one run lead we would win the game. Eldredge is a good bunter and I knew he could put it down. It was the first time we squeezed all year." Union was an inning and a half away from a visit to the state championship game, but things got a little scary for the Cougars in the bottom of the sixth inning. Olsen flew out and Wilson struck out, but Lund reached first base on an error. The Cougar fans became even more nervous when Morlan singled singl-ed to place men on first and second, but Sammaripa, who got stronger in the later innings, put the Cougar fans out of their misery as he whiffed Leamaster. Trowbridge singled with one out in the top of the seventh inning and stole second base. Sammaripa delivered a line drive into right field, but the outfielder out-fielder robbed a base hit away from the Union batter with a successful shoe string catch. Trowbridge was thrown out trying to steal third base. Union was only three outs away from taking part in the state title game and they refused to let Emery stand in their way as Sammaripa struck out Lund for the first out, first baseman Richard grabbed a dribbler by Allred for a ground out and Sammaripa blazed blaz-ed three strikes by Shorthill to make the final score: Union, 3 and Emery, 1. The Cougars' Trowbridge singled into in-to left field in the top of the first inn- s: .. , - '' s. h . V-"V" J y ,L i- UNION HURLER, Lonnie Sammaripa, right, talks to a Union "- Cougar fan. Sammaripa was the winning pitcher in Union's ' 1 semi-final win over Emery, Saturday. ing and stole second base, but Sammaripa Sam-maripa struck out and Cramer flew out to the centerfielder. Emery also gained a single in its half of the first inning on a base hit by Shorthill, but Mortenson struck out and Olsen popped up to Union catcher Anderson to end the inning. Three walks to Anderton, Eldredge and Wayne Gingell loaded up the bases for the Cougars in the top of the second inning, but the Union crew didn't take advantage of the situation as Kerry Brown struck out and Mike Ross popped pop-ped up to the second baseman. Emery was blanked in the bottom of the second se-cond inning as Wilson flied out and Lund and Morlan were retired on strike outs. Once again the Cougars got a runner run-ner on the base paths as Sammaripa connected for a double, but the scoring scor-ing opportunity was wasted as Cramer struck out and Richard grounded out. Emery scored one run in the bottom of the third inning, but the Cougars scored zero counters in the top of the fourth inning. Sammaripa was still trying to recover from a thigh injur)' he suffered in the third inning and he had problems in the bottom of the fourth inning. Wilson singled with one out and moved to third on a ground out by Lund. Morlan was walked to place two runners on the bases, but Sammaripa refused to yield to pain and blazed three pitches by Leamaster to get out of the inning. Union went down one, two, three in the top of the fifth inning and Lund led off with a walk in the bottom of the fifth inning. Allred reached first on a fielder's choice and Lund was forced out at second base. Shorthill struck out and Mortenson grounded out. Union was behind 1-0 going into the top of the sixth inning, but the Cougars erupted for three runs to put the game in the Union victory collection. Sammaripa struck out 11 Emery Spartans and allowed only four hits anH rro i-nri Ktit tVm rirhinCT ix-rtrlH didn't look too good for Sammaripa in the third inning when he was hit by a singled by Ferd Allred. "The first thing I thought was it hit him in the knee and he wouldn't be able to pitch. It was on the muscle. He was sore, but he didn't want to come out and we d-dn't want him to come out. He couldn't pull off the mound as well for a couple of innings and started going sidearm. He started loosening up and felt better. He threw real well the last few innings," commented Fieldsted. Union will take on South Sevier in the 2-A state championship game Friday Fri-day at 1 p.m. "South Sevier has a good team. The championship game should be a good game like the one we had with Emery. We have to come up with a few runs ourselves because we feel that teams aren't going to score many runs on us," said Fieldsted. "South Sevier's pitcher in the game with Grand County threw the ball fairly-hard. fairly-hard. We will go with Sammaripa. He will have five days resi and will be ready to go." - - J - " i . y . v ' ..r j- '---. 4 i . ! 1 ; ' COUGAR BATTER, Bryan Eldredge hopes for a base hit while swinging the bat at the baseball. Eldredge connected on a bunt in the game Saturday with Emery, which drove in the winning run. Union beat Emery, 3 to 1, and will face South Sevier, Friday at 1 p.m. in the 2-A championship game in Provo. |
