Despite the winning scoreline reading 9-0, Camp Verde High School baseball’s Verde Valley rivalry matchup with Sedona Red Rock High School was a defensive one.
Camp Verde’s [14-3, 6-1 Central] defense did well to hold Red Rock off the board, putting up a zero in the error column alongside the Scorpions’ zero runs.
“To be honest, that’s our M.O., when we win, we play good defense. When we lose, we don’t,” Cowboys head coach Will Davis said. “If we make mistakes, we usually don’t win. We’re not the best hitting team, but we play good defense. That’s the norm for us so that’s the kind of plays we should make and need to make to win ball games.”
With an additional 10-0 win over Paradise Honors High School on Thursday, April 20, the Central Region championship came down to Camp Verde’s senior day game against Northland Preparatory Academy. The Spartans handed them their only region loss this season, 3-2 on April 7. But more important than the region title, the higher seeding in the Arizona Interscholastic Association 2A State Championship was on the line.
The Cowboys came away 6-5 winners after a thrilling nine-inning battle with the Spartans, capturing the Central Region title. A story on that game can be found in the Wednesday, May 3 edition of the Camp Verde Journal.
The Cowboys did not score until the fifth inning, when they poured in four runs, the first two directly resulting from Red Rock errors. While runs may not have touched home in the early going, the opportunities were still there.
“Our pregame plan was to come out fired up, score a lot in the first inning, and that didn’t happen,” Camp Verde senior John Castillo said.
Six Cowboys runners were left stranded through the first four innings, due in part to solid defense by the Scorpions. They turned a run-saving double play in the fourth after keeping the slate clean on a fielder’s choice.
The fifth inning, however, saw the steady Scorpions defense falter.
Castillo singled and a botched pickoff attempt landed him at third base. Sophomore Dominiq Bruno scored him on a sacrifice fly. Then senior Ryan Cain singled, and after a ground out, he reached home thanks to a fielding error, and the momentum built.
Senior Darren Franklin doubled senior Easton Braden home, who had reached on the error, and a Jose Diaz single scored the fourth.
The game was put out of reach in the sixth frame. The fifth and sixth runs were helped in on more defensive mistakes before three singles and a ground out saw the final three scores find home plate.
To be successful in State, Davis talked about three key factors: Speed, defense and throwing strikes. With 130 stolen bases, the Cowboys are fourth across all AIA divisions and second in Conference 2A. Their fielding percentage is .923, fifth in 2A. 140 strikeouts has them fifth in the conference as well.
