The No. 2 seeded Camp Verde High School softball team used a five-run fifth inning to defeat No. 7 Trivium Preparatory Academy, 5-2, in the Conference 2A state tournament quarterfinals on Friday, May 4, at Rose Mofford Softball Complex.
Neither team threatened one another through the first four innings, as the Cowboys mustered just three baserunners while holding the Crimson Knights to zero. Presented with the opportunity to score in the fifth, Camp Verde made it count, and the lead held up to punch its ticket to the 2A state semifinals for the third straight season.
“It’s important to stay patient. We teach that in the game, and life. That’s one of the things that we really focused on throughout the season, is staying patient, seeing the ball, studying the game,” Cowboys head coach Henry Smith said. “Being a student of the game, and when you are you learn what to do later on, and so that’s just like life, figure it out and execute, and that’s what they did today.”
Cowboys sophomore pitcher Jacy Finley, the Central Region’s defensive player of the year, did not give up a hit to the West Region’s co-champion until the sixth inning. Finley added 13 strikeouts to her 219 total from the regular season, and walked just three. She struck out the side in the second inning.
Both teams struggled to solve their opposing pitchers. Camp Verde drew two walks in the second inning, but stranded both runners. Cowboys freshman shortstop Jenna Huey singled in the fourth, but was left on base. Aside from that, it was three-up, three-down from the top of the second to the top of the fourth.
Camp Verde sophomore left fielder Bennett Holm sparked the five-inning flurry with a single. Cowboys senior catcher Jade Oium singled before both baserunners pulled off a double steal.
Camp Verde freshman second baseman Cassandra Casillas’ RBI infield base hit scored Holm for the first run. The threat was nearly stifled when Oium was tagged out at home on Cowboys junior third baseman Tyra Smith’s bunt for the second out.
After Camp Verde sophomore right fielder Hailey Moore singled to load the bases, Huey drove a base-clearing double into the right center field fence to make it 4-0. Finley’s single to center field plated Huey to cap the scoring.
“We always tell them how important it is to understand it’s a seven inning game, so throughout that seven innings we plan on scoring, whenever it happens,” Henry Smith said. “It happened to be later in the game. Sometimes it takes a few innings to adjust to a pitcher and that’s what happened today. We identified some pitches that she was throwing and in a certain pattern, and it just takes time to get that down and once we got it down, we were able to put up the runs.”
Finley, who struck out 17 in last season’s quarterfinal, gave the Crimson Knights their first base runner by hitting senior Brenna Taylor in the top of the sixth. Taylor later came around to score when Trivium Prep sophomore right fielder Reagan Jordan’s base hit slipped by Moore. Jordan reached third base on the error, and scored on Crimson Knights sophomore third baseman Ava Gauna’s base knock. It was all that Trivium Prep, which is just as underclassman-heavy as the Cowboys, would generate.
Finley froze Crimson Knights freshman catcher Presley Williamson, the team’s leading batter with 61 RBI and a .588 batting average, on a pitch in the lower half of the zone for the inning-ending strikeout.
“I get more confident [with the lead], but I also know that I have to keep working hard and I can’t let off because if I let off, then you never know what can happen,” Finley said.
Finely faced a bases-loaded jam with two outs in the seventh, but struck Taylor out to seal the victory. Huey led the way offensively with two hits, three RBI, and one walk.
The Cowboys move on to play No. 3 seed Willcox High School in the semifinals at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 5, at Rose Mofford Softball Complex. Willcox pulled off a seventh-inning comeback against No. 6 seed and Central Region rival Paradise Honors High School to win 6-3 after trailing 3-1.
Henry Smith had not seen Willcox play, but remained steadfast with the team’s mantra of focusing only on itself every game.
“At this point I haven’t watched any of the teams from that side of Arizona play,” Henry Smith said. “The only thing we can do is play our game and we have a little more to offer, we’re keeping stuff in our pocket, and we’ll take a little bit more out tomorrow and we’ll see if that can be enough to get us another win. It’s one game at a time and we always talk about that, and so now we made it to the semis, and I’m just proud of the girls for their effort and their dedication to me and our staff and to the team.”
