Led by two-run home runs from senior pitcher Taya Smith and sophomore Jade Oium, Camp Verde High School won its third straight Section I softball title going away Friday, April 22.
Combined with a subsequent close call in a 3-2 baseball victory, CVHS has won its last four on the diamond over Sedona Red Rock High School. With a win Wednesday, April 27, at Tuba City High School, both Cowboys teams can clinch a bye through the first round of their Division IV state tournaments.
Softball
“That’s the ultimate goal, is to win a state title,” said Smith’s father, Henry, Cowboys head softball coach. “To win a section title, it’s expected — in the off-season. That’s when we start talking about it. There’s always some luck involved.”
Taya Smith hardly needed that in the 20-0, four-inning home win over the Scorpions, allowing just three hits.
“She has a rare talent, to be able to pitch and hit,” Henry Smith said. “You’ll see a lot of really good pitchers that don’t hit so much.”
Primarily because it takes so much work, he said: One to two hours practicing each aspect of the game, every day.
“The work is in the off-season,” Smith said. “It’s always a tough challenge to come out here, work and get ahead. That’s the key, is to take advantage of what we have.”
Smith and Oium took advantage of the many opportunities poor SRRHS fielding gave them, each batting in three runs.
“Just keep applying the pressure,” Smith said. “You do that, you cause errors.”
Junior outfielder Tiauna Day added another two RBIs, while Smith’s younger sister, freshman Tyra, also knocked in a run. Serenity Garcia and Kayla Hackett also drove in runs as the Cowboys scored five, eight and seven runs in the first three innings.
“It’s very important for our team to come out starting hot,” Henry Smith said. “We need to have a more complete lineup, hitting, one through nine.”
At the core of that lineup is the battery of Taya Smith and fellow senior Paige Church at catcher, one of the top power hitters in Division IV despite having just two walks against the Scorpions.
“It’s been a blessing to have two athletes that are genuine friends, that are willing to work off-season, off-time, off-practice, off-schedule — that push each other in the dugout,” Henry Smith said. “They stay committed and never settle. One will let the other know, ‘Hey, you’re slacking. Pick it up.’”
“To watch it play out, it’s awesome,” Smith said. “It’s been a dream.
“It’s all mental. We have a young team. I think they’ll be able to handle the nerves of State.”
Baseball
April 14, senior pitcher Logan Conrad dominated a 15-4, five-inning win at Sedona Red Rock High School.
April 22, Conrad was just as assured placing pitches in the strike zone, but junior second baseman Wyatt Howe gave him just enough support for the 3-2 home win.
“I was nervous,” Conrad said. “I got a sprained wrist, but I dealt through it and just got the win.”
Howe had the lone RBI in five CVHS hits and just enough defense in the seventh inning, with the tying run for SRRHS just 90 feet away at third base.
Howe stabbed Scorpions senior Garrison Skornik’s hot ground ball and threw it to first base a split-second before Skornik’s foot hit the bag for the final out.
With a potential bye to the second round of the Division III state tournament awaiting the Cowboys, Conrad might not be able to stand the extra day’s rest.
“I never thought we’d be that good this season,” Conrad said. “I knew we’d be in the playoffs, but we just keep the mentality up every game.”
For full state baseball and softball tournament schedules, please see the Wednesday, April 27, issues of the Camp Verde Journal and Cottonwood Journal Extra.
