Six Camp Verde High School baseball players have stepped up to the commitment of year-round baseball.
Sophomores Easton Braden and Wyatt Howe led the Cowboys charge to the championship game of the Summer Classic in Buckeye on July 24 through 26. Then, following a break in the first two weeks of August, they have helped CVHS head baseball coach Will Davis rally the core varsity returners to practice from 6 to 8 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday this fall.
“We won the first three games to get out of our pool, but the championship game score wasn’t good,” Davis said. “We were in it — we had a lead most of the way — but we fell apart about halfway through. We had to go to some eighth-graders who hadn’t pitched before.”
Braden and Howe both hit close to a .500 average during the tournament, Davis said, and junior Zack Collins hit well also.
The Camp Verde travel team beat a Coconino High School team and the renowned Phoenix club team Arizona RBI, 3-2, before losing 13-6 to host Buckeye.
“It was 2-1 in the bottom of the sixth before we scored one to tie it and then one in the seventh to win,” Davis said of the comeback win against Arizona RBI. “We haven’t played since.”
Braden and Howe have joined Mississippi senior transfer Ty Williamson, prospective staff ace Logan Conrad, a junior, senior outfielder Coy Dugan and sophomore Alex Villafranco in honing their skills on the Cowboys’ main diamond twice a week during the fall.
For the full story, please see the Wednesday, Oct. 1, issue of the Camp Verde Journal.
