Cowboys never reached the top without winning a shootout or two.
This was especially true for Camp Verde High School’s baseball team in its Division IV state tournament opener Saturday, April 30.
While the Cowboys softball team [26-6] was nearly flawless in its Peoria playoff opener, dispatching Chino Valley High School, 15-1, in five innings, head coach Will Davis’ team overcame an early three-run deficit with four third-inning runs, scoring another three in the sixth to put away pesky Dysart High School, 11-7.
It was the first postseason baseball victory in five seasons for CVHS [19-10].
Both teams earned byes through the first round as top eight postseason seeds; both teams have their shot at the state semifinals Friday, May 6, at overlapping times, in different parts of Phoenix.
Staff ace Taya Smith will go for her second straight postseason win at Rose Mofford Sports Complex over seventh-seeded Buckeye Union High School. An hour later, and over half-an-hour to the southwest on the Cleveland Indians’ fifth of six spring training fields at the Goodyear Ballpark, fellow senior Logan Conrad faces the toughest start of his career against Division IV top gun Desert Christian High School.
Baseball
After pitching the Cowboys to their first postseason victory in five years, Conrad is ready for the challenge of the tournament top seed, from Tucson.
“Every team’s the same,” said Conrad, after striking out nine Demons batters in six-and-one-third innings. “It’s just all about mental [approach]. I’m just going to take it one pitch at a time.”
While junior Easton Braden swiftly retired the final two batters, it was in relief of Conrad, who also batted in Braden and first baseman John Castillo to cap the scoring with a double to deep left field in the bottom of the sixth.
“I was kind of bummed coach pulled me, but relieved it was for Easton,” Conrad said. “It was for the good of the team.”
But nerves, not to mention three straight two-out singles, had the senior CVHS staff ace on his heels early against the No. 24 Demons, who needed 10 innings to upset ninth-seeded Thatcher less than 18 hours earlier.
“I was definitely nervous in the first inning,” Conrad said. “After that I calmed down, started getting some strikeouts.”
Shortstop Ryan Cain was the Cowboys’ initial catalyst, scoring fellow junior Wyatt Howe and sophomore Rafael Zapata with a high chopper that turned into a double down the left-field foul line.
Braden, the Cowboys’ starting catcher, then knocked an RBI double of his own to left field and would score the next batter, as a dribbler by Castillo was mishandled down the first base line and eventually thrown away.
Zapata kicked in an RBI double of his own the next inning before the bottom of the order, seniors Bryce Wantland and Blake Penrod, would put the Cowboys ahead for good in the fifth inning, 8-3, knocking in freshman right fielder Dominic Bruno.
“We got the first-game jitters out,” Zapata said. “I was very comfortable, seeing the ball better, just noticing pitches better.”
The test becomes far greater May 6 against No. 1 seed Desert Christian, which barely needed two hours to dispatch No. 17 seed Morenci Junior/Senior High School, 12-2, April 30.
“We have to practice hard the whole week,” said Zapata, who also has two wins in relief as a pitcher. “We have the tools; we’ve just got to focus.”
Softball
Camp Verde High School needed a six-run sixth inning to trigger the Arizona Interscholastic Association’s 10-run mercy rule March 1 in a 15-1 win at Chino Valley High School.
It took one less inning April 30 for head softball coach Henry Smith to get his third win of the season over his Section I rival, 15 days after freshman Carlee Oesterreich held the Cougars to one run at home.
In that game, Taya Smith finished off the Cougars, 8-1, with two strikeouts in an inning of relief. She would give up as many hits to Chino Valley in five innings in her complete-game second round win.
“Taya did hang a curveball in the fourth they knocked out of the park,” Henry Smith said. “We didn’t have any errors, and we made some really good plays to hold them at one.”
While Smith helped her cause with an RBI double, the Cowboys would also take advantage of seven Cougars errors, scoring six runs in the third and bookending their effort on offense with four runs in the first and fourth innings.
Senior catcher Paige Church sparked CVHS with a two-run home run in the first inning, adding two other RBI singles.
“That’s what makes this team so special,” Henry Smith said. “The pitching and catching is great, and the rest of the defense, although the majority [is] freshmen, is solid. We have four freshmen starting in the infield, so it’s important to work on the basics and drill our mechanics all season.”
Junior Kayla Hackett “put her bat to work,” Smith added, also going three-for-four at the plate with four RBIs, hitting a triple and a double as well as scoring four runs after stealing two bases.
“That was the key — keep applying pressure,” Smith said. “At the start of the tournament, our goal was to make sure to get base hits so we could do that. Before the game, we talked about trying to keep the ball down on the ground as much as possible and not hit pop-ups.”
Then Henry, Taya and Tyra Smith, a freshman who was stranded once after being hit by a Chino Valley pitch, all came home that night to see Oesterreich’s cow, Darth Vader, at the Verde Valley Fair.
“We bought some cotton candy and got an hour in before we got rained out,” Smith said. “The girls want to play right now; they’re chomping at the bit. It’s going to be a long week, to hold them back.”
For times of the quarterfinal games and more photos, please see the Wednesday, May 4, issues of the Camp Verde Journal and Cottonwood Journal Extra.
