The games may be just for fun, but in baseball and softball, it doesn’t get much more fun than winning big.
Such motivation has also kept the teams at Cottonwood Middle School undefeated after the Lobos swept Big Park Community School in their baseball and softball season series Monday, April 6, by a combined score of 27-1.
Chaz Taylor is the ace of a potent, loss-free group of Lobos pitchers that also includes fellow eighth-grader Justin Tanner and seventh-grader Dalton Zingali.
“I have, I’d say, three that are pretty solid, have lots of years of experience pitching,” said first-year head coach Troy Hoke, whose team has played three games in most weeks this spring. “Then we’ve got a couple kids that have maybe played on some teams growing up I’m giving some opportunities. I have all the kids pitch in practice, just to get familiar with it.”
Eighth-grader Joe Machado is the nominal catcher for Hoke, a long-time local Little League coach, who already is familiar with most of his players’ strengths and weaknesses from having coached them — and coached against them.
“He’s pretty much shut people down who are trying to run on us,” Hoke said. “It’s been pretty impressive to watch.”
That includes three pickoffs — one of a Camp Verde Middle School runner attempting to steal third base, the final out of a 14-0 shutout March 25 of the Cowboys, leaders of the Verde Valley League.
“We come to practice and know exactly what we need to work on,” he said. “Joe could be one of our top pitchers, but he took an interest in catching. He’s hit two home runs on the year already.”
So has Taylor, whose inside-the-park homer April 6 finished off Big Park.
When not pitching behind him, Tanner and Zingali form a solid left side of the infield at third base and shortstop, Hoke said, with his son, Trevor, playing second. Cameron Machek is at first base when not pitching, with fellow eighth-graders Nick Dumford, Colby Fanning and Antoine Zabala rounding out the outfield.
“The kids are starting to find their groove really well,” Hoke said. “We seem to have taught the fastball really well, but for some reason, off-speed pitches and the slow pitchers get them. We’ve been really working on timing, and they’re really being receptive.”
The allowance of a designated hitter in Lobos games has also given Hoke the freedom to bat a sixth-grader, Elian Martinez, for all seven innings of a game — or two hours, whichever comes first.
“He earned the rights to DH for us,” Hoke said. “The West Sedona game, he hit it all the way to the fence, which for a sixth-grader on a big field was a pretty big accomplishment.”
While nine players of the 25 who came out for the baseball team did not survive preseason cuts, the 12 Lobos softball players under co-coaches Brenda Zolman and Carol Karber are just coached to have fun.
For the full story and team schedules, please see the Wednesday, April 8, issue of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.
