Despite two straight losses Friday, March 20, for the first time since last spring’s Gracie Haught Classic at Payson High School, Camp Verde High School remains one of the early favorites to win the Division III state softball championship.
Junior staff ace Taya Smith struck out six Santa Cruz High School batters over six innings for the complete-game, 12-4 win in the Classic consolation bracket championship Saturday,
March 21.
“We see a ton of improvement throughout the whole team,” said Smith’s father, head coach Henry Smith. “We fixed some major flaws with this tournament, now we’re fine-tuning mechanics — a close play on a single hit now should be an out, things like that.”
In their five wins at the two-day Payson tournament, the Cowboys [13-3] averaged more than 11 runs per game.
But they remain unable to solve the host Longhorns, who no-hit CVHS, 5-0, on March 10 in the Cowboys’ only non-tournament loss to date. It marked Camp Verde’s eighth straight loss to Payson in an annual rivalry going back to 2012.
“We’re not that far from giving teams like Payson and Nogales a great game,” Smith said. “The girls got better as the tournament went on, which is what we need in order to make some noise in the state tournament.”
Since that game, in the three games leading up to Gracie Haught, CVHS steamrolled its opponents by a combined score of 48-8 — including a 14-0 one-hitter of Sedona Red Rock High School in which Smith and freshman Kaycie Williams teamed up to strike out 10 Scorpions over five innings.
“She’s an outstanding pitcher, Taya,” said Mike Keider, Scorpions head coach. “She had a lot of movement and speed: She had to have been throwing in the high 60s or low 70s. We hadn’t seen anyone like her.”
For the full story and more photos, please see the Wednesday, March 25, issue of the Camp Verde Journal.
