The Grand County softball team was back to a busy schedule after having no games during Spring Break, playing seven games the first week of April. The girls won two and lost five to stand at 6-9, 2-2 in Region 15 play.
In their first action in two weeks, the Lady Devils traveled to Emery and fell behind two runs quickly before tying the game at 2-2 with runs in the third and fourth innings. The Spartans then pounced on the Devils with four runs in the fifth inning to jump back out to the lead. Grand added one in the sixth to cut the deficit to 6-3, but three more Spartan runs in the bottom half put the Lady Devils behind 9-3 going into the final inning. Grand didn’t go down without a fight, scoring five runs in the inning, but ultimately falling short 9-8.
Morgan Dalton homered, Amanda Sheets tripled and Linda Minor and Teaven Fredricks hit doubles in for Grand. Donna Snow was the losing pitcher for the Lady Devils,
Snow bounced back from the loss, earning pitching wins in both games of a double header Friday, April 5 against South Sevier. The Lady Devils won the first game 19-6 and the second game 15-1.
“We did really well in the region games,” Grand softball coach Stephanie Cluff said. “The girls came out and really hit the ball.”
The Lady Devils traveled to Payson for a non-region tournament on Saturday, April 6, playing four games, three of which were against schools 3A or higher in classification. They lost to Gunnison 7-5 in the first game, 3A Uintah 9-8 the second game, 4A Lehi 10-1 in the third game and 3A Pine View 7-3 in their final game of the day. Snow was the losing pitcher against Gunnison and Pine View, Sheets took a loss and a blown save against Uintah and Rhi Bohannan took the loss against Lehi.
Cluff said errors and fatigue plagued the Lady Devils on Saturday.
“At tournaments like this one we play larger schools and it’s hard on our pitching staff,” she said. “We don’t have a deep pitching staff this year, but in region play, we should be okay.”
Cluff said she believes Grand still has “a really good chance to make the playoffs” by performing well in their remaining region games.
“Our main goal right now is to pull together as a team and do our best in region as we work toward the state tournament.”
The Lady Devils return to Region 15 action Friday, April 12 in a double header on the road against Richfield at 2 and 4 p.m., the first two of four remaining games on their regular-season slate. Their only remaining home game is a rematch with Emery on Friday, April 19 at 3 p.m.
