Four Camp Verde Middle School baseball and softball players were named to the all-Verde Valley League teams after the Cowboys fell in the championship games of both tournaments.
Despite the efforts of shortstop Rachel Stockseth and catcher Brittney Gunter, the Cowboys fell a run short of repeating as league softball champions, with Clarkdale-Jerome School taking advantage of nine CVMS fielding errors in a 7-6 loss.
“It’s tough to come back from that,” said Susan Holm, Cowboys assistant coach, following the six-inning loss Saturday, April 25, at the Oak Creek School in Cornville. “Four of their runs were unearned, while we scored something every inning.
“We really had everything in our favor; we just didn’t hit the ball enough.”
The loss was a reversal of the Cowboys’ one-run victory Friday, April 24, in their opening game of the tournament over Pine-Strawberry Elementary School.
“I’m just proud of the girls’ character and poise.”
Head coach Nate Jackson’s baseball team could not provide as much of a contest in its league title game despite edging the Mingus Rams, 6-5, in the April 24 opener at Mayer Elementary School.
Top seed West Sedona School struck for four first-inning runs and three more in the third in a 10-1 victory that secured the Wildcats’ second straight league baseball crown.
Eighth-grade pitcher Dominic Bruno made the all-tournament team despite not having “his usual dominant performance,” Jackson said, in the nine-run loss to the Wildcats. “Our kids just got down on themselves, and it escalate[d] from there.”
Battise also joined Bruno, Gunter and Stockseth on the all-tournament teams after getting the win over Clarkdale when a shallow pop fly was dropped by the Mingus Rams catcher in fair territory.
“It rattled in and out of his glove,” Jackson said. “We had the bases loaded after we tied it up, 3-3, in the fifth inning.”
