After an undefeated season from one of his own and more than $20,000 spent on upgrades to the Riverfront Baseball Complex, Verde Valley Little League President Jeremy Peters is ready to host the next step on the road to Williamsport, Pa.
“We’ve got fencing, bullpens and all that coming in.” said Peters, whose vice president, Jeff Lynch, led a Majors team to a 21-0 record and a District 10 Tournament of Champions triumph Sunday, June 12. “We’re paying for materials; concrete walls have been extended with the help of a local contractor. City public works has volunteered some time and work. We’ve got to still finish stands for canopies and chairs to be off the field and walkways.”
First up Monday, June 20, at Riverfront will be the Majors division tournament for the All-Star softball players from District 10, including six players from first-year head coach Creighton Kim’s champs.
“Six of our players [are] on the [team]; one is on the 9- and 10-[year-old] All-Stars,” said Kim, whose girls defeated host Chino Valley in the Tournament of Champions before falling to Bagdad’s faster pitcher in the semifinals. “I am not coaching any All-Star team this year. My assistant coaches, Aaron Scott and Alec Smith, are coaching the Majors team, though.”
Although Camp Verde’s baseball teams in the Majors and Minors division both won their first-round matchups, the real story was Jeff Lynch’s Diamondbacks. Lynch, who will coach the home All-Star team beginning Thursday, June 30, only needed 12 innings over three games to sweep to the District 10 tournament title.
After outscoring their first two opponents 25-5, Lynch’s team spotted championship game opponent Prescott Valley a two-run lead in the top of the first inning before burying them with a 12-run third inning.
“I was expecting to see a lot more of a challenge,” Lynch said. “But the boys, man — they really stepped it up for this tournament.”
The Diamondbacks swatted 10 home runs over 200 feet out of the Chino Valley Community Center fields in the three games, led by three from championship game winner Jan Alvarez.
“We pulled Jan after only 20 pitches because we kind of had it in the bag,” said Lynch, who saw Alvarez also strike out 12 Prescott Valley hitters in the four-inning win. “So do the math there. It was phenomenal.”
Mariners head coach John Frisch will join his assistants, Alby Bryant and Jimmy Battise, June 30 at Riverfront after duplicating the one tournament win that his Minors counterpart, Joshua Loveall, got in Chino Valley.
“I don’t like running up a score like that, but how do you tell your players not to hit the ball?” asked Frisch after a 29-1 opening blowout of Dewey-Humboldt. “I ended up having my player stand in the base paths and take outs so we could get the game over with.”
Easton Bryant allowed the one unearned run in four innings, and Jose Santana belted two homers out of the park, including a grand slam.
“The team as a whole batted really well, but the standout hitter that game was José,” said Frisch, whose son, Cutter, took the 12-4 loss against Prescott Valley despite shutting out the Diamondbacks in the first inning. “We really had a good chance to face Verde Valley in the final game; we just had a few errors.”
Corey Johnson helped the Mariners battle back from a 6-0 deficit with a three-run homer in the third inning, but it was too little, too late for Camp Verde.
“[We] hit the ball hard,” Frisch said. “Just happened to hit it right at their players every time. I’m proud of these kids.”
For more photos and the full rosters of All-Star players in the Majors division, please see the Wednesday, June 15, issues of the Camp Verde Journal and Cottonwood Journal Extra.
