Sponsorship has its rewards in Little League baseball.

The Arizona Diamondbacks have demonstrated that with their sponsorship of Sedona’s Majors team, which decimated the Camp Verde Braves in its Monday, April 4, opener, 12-2.

“We bought a lot of new equipment because of it,” head coach Mark Stewart said. “Practice balls for every team, a $2,500 mound — just this year, and this is our third year.”

They will be playing six similarly-sponsored teams from the Verde Valley this season, including one from Camp Verde at 6 p.m. Monday, April 11.

As for the Braves, seven Sedona runs crossed home plate before they could record their first out.

“It was awesome,” head coach Mark Stewart said. “[The] team played very well.”

Desert Star Community School student Shota Yabuuchi sparkled in his four-inning, complete-game debut on the mound.

“Shota had stellar pitching,” Stewart said. “He’s got a knuckleball that freaks every kid out, even ours.

Traits that Yabuuchi, a straight-A student, owes to how he was brought up by his family, Stewart added.

“They’re very critical,” he said. “He is a natural athlete. He is good at everything. It’s amazing.”

As the clean-up hitter in Stewart’s batting order, Yabuuchi walked and came around to score Sedona’s fourth run after second-year Majors catcher Matthew LeBlanc got on via walk himself.

Shortstop Dakota Farrar, the D-Backs’ leadoff hitter, began the scoring in the bottom of the first inning after drawing a walk, stealing second base and advancing to third on a wild pickoff throw into center field.

Stewart’s son, Cameron, Sedona’s first baseman, singled him home down the left-field line and would score himself on a wild pitch, knocking the ball out of the Camp Verde catcher’s glove on the slide and tag attempt.

Center fielder Carlos Lattanzi, third baseman Adan Trahin and second baseman Cody Brefeld also crossed the plate on walks, errors or wild pitches, and the rout was on.

“We earned all the runs,” Mark Stewart said, “because we hit, [had] great baserunning and made very little mistakes.”

Left fielder Connor Strubbe and right fielder Bradey Paz didn’t have much to do defensively or at the bottom of Stewart’s batting order, so they provided all the bench support Stewart’s team would need.

“The team stayed in the game,” he said. “Lots of positive reinforcement from the bench.

“[I] couldn’t ask for a better first game. We’re going to get stronger and stronger every game.”

For the full Sedona Little League baseball schedule and more photos, please see the Wednesday, April 6, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.