Cottonwood softball ends season in state tourney second round
Jun 28, 2018 04:22PM ● By Brian Shaw
Freshman Jocelyn Lujan hits the ball down the left field line against Jordan High in region play. (Travis Barton/City Journals)
By Brian Shaw | [email protected]
Through three innings of the Cottonwood Colts softball team's one-loss bracket matchup versus Murray on May 22, the score was deadlocked at 0-0.
The Colts had life in this do-or-die game in the 5A state playoffs. Junior pitcher Carlie Roberts was throwing a shutout.
Life was good for Cottonwood, who a day earlier suffered a 10-2 loss to Bountiful to end up in this pivotal game.
And then came the fourth inning. Roberts got shellacked for nine runs and Murray tacked on four more in the fifth.
The Colts would answer with one run in the fourth and another six runs in the fifth inning—including a tape measure home run from Roberts.
Junior Savanna Hoffman and senior slugger Matea Manulelelua also smashed homers for Cottonwood, who fought valiantly in the final two innings of their season, only to lose to Murray 15-6.
For the Colts, Roberts was huge, losing just four games in which she pitched in 2018. She only lost one game in region play.
Hoffman was the Colts leading hitter, smacking seven doubles on the season to go with several home runs. And Manulelelua—one of just a handful of seniors on this Cottonwood squad—was the Colts leading home run hitter.
For Cottonwood, a team that returns several juniors—including Roberts and Hoffman—the goal next year will be to not only eclipse this year's return to the state tournament; it will likely be to win it.
