Despite a slow, error-filled start, Camp Verde High School’s baseball team clawed back late to tie the game 4-4 with visiting Scottsdale Preparatory Academy only to let it get away immediately after, falling 12-5 on Thursday, March 22.
Without junior leader Dominiq Bruno, a lack of focus put the Cowboys [4-2] behind from the start, giving up three runs in the first inning behind three errors. After tying the game in the fifth inning, they gave up three more in the sixth and could not recover.
“Honestly I think they’ve been leaning on Dom all year, expecting him to make plays, and today they didn’t have him and today they needed to make plays, and so they didn’t,” Cowboys head coach Will Davis said. “Most of that comes back on me for not having them prepared.”
Camp Verde junior starting pitcher Dakota Battise had a good outing, giving up six hits and three earned runs while striking out 13, walking three and hitting two batters across five and one third innings.
Battise was forced to retire due to a rising pitch count after the Spartans [4-3, 0-1 Metro West Region] made it 6-4. It took three more Cowboys pitchers to record the final five outs.
“I think I did pretty well on the mound, but I couldn’t hit worth a crap,” Battise said. “I knew I had to come in and throw strikes and work inside and outside the zone, and I knew I’d be pretty good.”
Battise struck out the side in the first inning, but two errors by Cowboys junior right fielder Kolby Hedges and one by sophomore first baseman Dawson McCune directely contributed to the first two Scottsdale Prep runs. A base hit drove in the third.
Camp Verde was slow coming out of the gate offensively as well. Save McCune’s double in the first inning, it had just two hits through the first four frames. The Cowboys stranded seven on base in total.
“Once again I think some of it went down to they watched him warm up and decided they were better and going to win,” Davis said. “Guys went out on the field expecting to win instead of expecting to play to win, so hopefully today was a good lesson learned for us.”
Battise again struck out the side in the second, but hit a batter who would eventually score on a passed ball to make it 4-0. The deficit nearly grew in the fourth, but Davis’ decision to put the Spartans’ No. 3 batter on first to load the bases worked out, as the next batter grounded out to end the threat.
The Cowboys got on the board in the bottom half of the inning. Camp Verde sophomore second baseman Coke Bast walked and stole second, then reached third on a botched pickoff attempt. After a long at bat, Cowboys sophomore third baseman Wylie Howe singled in the run.
As the dugout grew more vocal, the hosts found new life. In the fifth inning they tied the game, aided by a handful of Spartans errors, scoring three runs with two outs on the board. Camp Verde freshman left fielder Peyton Kelley reached and advanced to second base on an error to kick things off, and freshman shortstop Mason Rayburn drove Kelley in.
Rayburn advanced to second on the throw home and stole third. McCune took first after getting hit by a pitch, then Davis called a double steal, resulting in Rayburn touching home and McCune advancing all the way to third base.
Camp Verde junior center fielder Braden Schuh and Bast forced two errors out of Spartans junior third baseman Thomas Averil, the first allowing McCune to score the game-tying run.
The Cowboys’ mo-mentum immediately dis-appeared when a high pop fly dropped in for a leadoff double. An infield single later, Davis intentionally walked the same batter as before, sophomore catcher Garrett Bigham, to load the bases with one out.
The double play did not come, and Scottsdale Prep scored three more runs to make it 7-4. The three inexperienced Cowboys relief pitchers have combined for less than 15 innings of work, and Scottsdale Prep took advantage, scoring five runs in the seventh to put the game out of reach.
McCune scored the final run in the bottom half of the frame after reaching on his second hard-hit double to center field. He stole home on another double steal.
After narrowly beating Tonopah Valley High School on March 20, the Cowboys’ form has dipped. Camp Verde’s final tuneup before Central Region play came at home against Payson High School on Saturday, March 24, with an 18-9 loss.
“It’s a big wake up call, after Tonopah’s game and we almost lost it, then this game. We need to show up if we’re going to do anything this season,” Rayburn said.
It opened at home against Glendale Preparatory Academy on Tuesday, March 27, but results were unavailable at press time.
The Cowboys travel to Verde Valley rival Sedona Red Rock High School for a 4 p.m. start on Thursday, March 30.
