Prep softball: Murray not hurting despite loss

The Murray Spartans dropped a close one to Fremont last Friday, falling to the Silver Wolves 3-1. The normally potent offensive attack of Murray was held to just six hits by Fremont pitcher Vanessa Bodily, who racked up seven strikeouts in the win.
    Including their stunted batting, there were a couple of other weird things about Murray's loss.
    First, the Spartans actually had to play a full game. To put it in perspective, in Murray's five previous games before Fremont, the Spartans outscored their five region opponents 83-9 and only played a full game once (a game they still won 16-5).
    The second oddity was that Murray lost a game to a team from the 801 area code. The Spartans aren't in the habit of losing many games, and they especially don't drop games to teams from Utah. It's been over a year since their last instate loss to Riverton, and since then they earned a state championship ring.
    But it's not like the Spartans are hurting. Despite the loss to Fremont, Murray is still 11-0 in region play, ranked No. 1 in all of 4A.
   
    Cottonwood
   
    It's do or die time for Cottonwood. The Colts are a couple of games behind Highland in the race to grab the final playoff spot in Region 6.
    "For us to do well, we've got to consistently hit the ball. They hit well against Olympus, but Olympus was just ready for it," said coach Suzanne Oliver.
    Not helping the Colts cause was their 11-4 loss last Tuesday to the Titans. Olympus came out strong against Cottonwood, putting up six runs in the first inning with the help of a grand slam from Alexi Hatch.
    "We actually had some really good hits, but they just went to the wrong places. We were putting the ball in play but it went right to their outfielders, or infielders," said Oliver.
    Yet even if the Colts don't make it to the playoffs, their squad can still be optimistic. Stocked almost entirely with underclassmen, Cottonwood softball stocked for next season.