Although many pieces will return next year from a Camp Verde High School baseball team that finished this season ranked eighth and made it to the Division IV quarterfinals, outgoing senior Logan Conrad will not be among them.
So the Cowboys’ ace pitcher is enjoying a moment in the sun with his fourth-year head coach after Conrad was named Section I Player of the Year and second-team all-Division IV.
“He’s pretty happy,” said Will Davis, who was honored as Section I Coach of the Year following the deepest playoff run in five years for CVHS. “With his section [Player] of the year honors, I was actually unhappy he wasn’t first team.”
Conrad, who did share first team all-section honors with second baseman Wyatt Howe, was also selected to play in the Division IV all-star game Saturday, May 28.
“Wyatt and Logan were our leaders,” Davis said. “I’m very proud of the kids. They both had great seasons. We couldn’t have gotten to where we were without them.”
Nor without Davis, who discounted his Coach of the Year award despite falling one inning and two unearned runs short of dethroning Desert Christian High School and making it to the Final Four.
“It’s a team award; it’s not a Coach Davis honor,” he said. “It’s not something that means a whole lot to me, to be honest. It doesn’t take a whole lot to motivate me.”
Howe joined Conrad on the all-division second team. Sophomore Rafael Zapata also was named all-section first team, while catcher Easton Braden garnered second-team honors.
“Whenever you get all-section first-teamers, you automatically get nominated for division awards, and you usually get one or two of them,” Davis said. “Team success, that playoff run, has a lot more to do with it than numbers. Coaches vote on it; it’s everybody, not just one person.”
Conrad struck out 99 batters to place second in the division. It was fifth-most among all high school pitchers in Arizona.
Conrad’s eight wins tied for third in the section, and his 3.70 earned-run average also cracked the top five.
But Conrad was no slouch defensively either, holding the third-best fielding percentage in Section I.
For all Camp Verde High School postseason baseball honorees, please see the Wednesday, June 1, issues of the Camp Verde Journal and Cottonwood Journal Extra.
