East Mountain High School baseball outduels Dexter to snap losing skid
East Mountain’s baseball team rebounded from a pair of tough losses last week at home with an 11-9 win on the road this week over the Dexter Demons.
“It’s a huge win, they played us really tough,” East Mountain head coach Ray Demarest said about the April 12 win over Dexter.
The T’wolves broke open a tie game in the top of the seventh with a two-out rally that scored two runs for the victory. With the bases loaded, Garret Darner hit a hard shot that Dexter’s shortstop couldn’t handle, and the ball caromed into left field, driving in Tristan Nemitz and Deshawn Torres-griego. Trace Krueger pitched a scoreless bottom half of the seventh for the save.
“We were a different team in the seventh, to score those two runs and then hold them like that,” Demarest said.
East Mountain had an early lead, scoring two runs in the first and three in the second. The T’wolves added another run in the third.
Dexter scored four runs in the bottom of the second and forged ahead 7-6 with three runs in the bottom of the third.
East Mountain answered with two in the fourth, but Dexter tied the score 8-8 in the bottom of the fifth.
Both teams scored a run in the sixth to knot the score at 9-9.
The win improved East Mountain’s record to 10-4 and came after a 6-1 defeat at home to district rival Sandia Prep on April 7, followed by a 6-2 loss on April 9 to Hope Christian.
Sandia Prep broke a 1-1 tie with a run in the third inning and added two in the fifth and two more in the sixth. The game was scheduled to be the opener of a doubleheader, but the second game was suspended in progress due to darkness.
Two days later, East Mountain hosted Hope Christian. The T’wolves missed an opportunity to score in the first inning when Cole Phillips tried to tag up from third base on a fly out, but he was nailed at the plate.
“Oh, I was out by a mile,” Phillips said. “I probably shouldn’t have tried to tag up on that play.”
Hope scored a run in the top of the second inning and East Mountain tied the game in the third when Gage Aucker’s groundout brought in Cooper Davis.
Hope pushed ahead 3-1 in the top of the fourth. Torres-griego scored in the bottom of the frame to trim the gap to 32. Hope extended its lead with three more runs in the top of the seventh.
Darner roped a double to the left field corner to lead off the bottom of the seventh, but he was thrown out trying to steal third and the final two East Mountain batters struck out.
An interesting footnote to the game was Hope Christian’s Evan Bagon.
Bagon played with several of East Mountain’s players during his years playing with East Mountain Little League, including being a member of two state champion teams.
“It’s nice to play with your old friends again, all the memories come back and how much fun you had growing up playing with them,” Bagon said. “It’s a little weird being on the other side, but it’s just good to see everyone again.”