In a battle between two of Conference 2A’s best, No. 2 ranked Camp Verde High School’s softball team defeated No. 6 Paradise Honors High School 5-4 to clinch the Central Region title on Friday, April 20.
The second matchup of the season was again decided by a one-run margin in favor of the Cowboys [15-1, 8-0], who won 3-2 on April 3. Camp Verde freshman shortstop Jenna Huey drove in the walkoff run to cap off her four for four, two RBI effort at the plate.
“I think persistence. The girls stayed confident, stayed steady, and at the end of the day it was two good pitchers and the way the game was played, someone has to come out on the bottom side,” Camp Verde head coach Henry Smith said. “That’s all that happened. [Paradise Honors coach Paul Hatcher] had a good strategy, we had a great strategy, and someone has to come out on the top end and somebody has to lose.”
Both teams put most of their runs on the board on the back of each other’s errors in what was a short game, lasting just over an hour and 15 minutes. Ultimately the Panthers [12-3. 5-2] had the most costly error.
Camp Verde also managed to get the top of its order to bat in the decisive inning.
Paradise Honors senior pitcher Katie Hatcher hit Camp Verde freshman second baseman Cassandra Casillas to lead off the seventh inning. Cowboys junior third baseman Tyra Smith singled before Huey’s heroics sealed the team’s second big win in as many days.
“The game, it’s strategy. It’s not always one inning — we’ve got seven innings to play, so sometimes you try to set things up and you hope to have the right lineup at the end, and that’s what happened with us,” Henry Smith said. “It worked out for us. They’re a really good team, well-coached, and they came to beat us. They knew the level of the game, and they came and brought it.”
Camp Verde beat Payson High School, No. 6 in Conference 3A, 4-2 in one the games Henry Smith had circled on the calendar. It found itself on an 11-game winning streak before its final regular season game at Northland Preparatory Academy on Tuesday, April 24. Results for that game were unavailable before press time.
The team is carrying momentum into the 2A state tournament, which begins on Saturday, April 28, at Rose Mofford Softball Complex in Phoenix, but it is still not satisfied with its level of play. Neither the Cowboys’ opponent nor game time were available at press time.
“I think we have a week to get better, we can still get better. We have things that we need to work on. Some maturity needs to happen and that’s going to happen this week. We’re going to start on it now, we’ll continue to get better, that’s all we have. That’s our only option, in life and in softball, is just to get better,” Henry Smith said.
On Friday, the Cowboys struck first in the first inning. With two outs, Huey singled before Camp Verde sophomore pitcher Jacy Finley doubled her in for a 1-0 lead. The hosts took advantage of an error to add to its lead in the following frame. Finley was two for two batting, while giving up three earned runs on seven hits with 11 strikeouts and two walks pitching.
Camp Verde sophomore right fielder Hailey Moore reached first after a wild pitch despite swinging through her third strike. Moore was taken out on a fielder’s choice by Cowboys junior center fielder Miranda Sharp. In the next at-bat, Cowboys senior catcher Jade Oium hit a home run, increasing the lead to 3-0.
Paradise Honors took advantage of the Cowboys’ first slip up of the game to clip its deficit to 3-2 in the third inning. Panthers freshman left fielder Ledezma Romero singled to lead off the inning and advanced to second on a passed ball.
| Central Region Standings | ||
|
Team Camp Verde Paradise Honors Northland Prep Sedona Red Rock Glendale Prep Mingus Mountain |
Region 8-0 5-2 5-3 1-2 2-6 0-8 |
Overall 15-1 12-3 9-7 2-4 2-12 0-10 |
Finley struck out back to back batters, but could not get out of the inning spotless. She walked Paradise Honors freshman catcher Brylee Bulger before Romero stole third base. Tyra Smith’s error during the play allowed Romero to score her team’s first run, and Bulger later found home on a single.
With Huey and senior Skylar Russell at second and third, Camp Verde was in a position to score again in the third.
The Panthers turned a double play to end the threat, as Cowboys sophomore left fielder Bennett Holm’s hard line drive was caught by Paradise Honors freshman second baseman Miranda Mathis, who then doubled off Russell at second.
Bilger gave the Panthers its only lead, at 4-3, on her two-run home run in the fifth inning. Camp Verde responded in the home half of the inning, Huey again the provider. Casillas reached on a fielder’s choice before Huey doubled her in to knot the game at 4-4. The Camp Verde defense retired the next six Panthers batters.
Having played a tightly contested matchup the first time around, there was some added pressure to the second round.
“You definitely get a little bit nervous because how close the game was and how good that team is, but we’re also a good team and we know we can compete and be better than them, and that’s all that matters,” Huey said. “We know we can do better and we will do better.”
