Underdog Scorpion girls learning craft on softball diamond4 min read

Sophomore pitcher Maggie Wenger delivers a pitch during Sedona Red Rock High School's season opening loss to Trivium Prep on Wednesday, Feb. 26 Photo by David Jolkovski/Larson Newspaper/Larson Newspapers

Sedona Red Rock High School’s girls softball team is heading into the season with different goals in mind. Given that the team doesn’t have a single senior on it, one of the goals is to show improvement and build into a true program. The Scorpions, though, are also concerned with winning games, something that didn’t happen a season ago.

The season’s opening game, on Wednesday, Feb. 26, was a rough start for the Sedona team. They were going against Trivium Prep, one of the best 2A teams in the state. Furthermore, with four players coming over from the basketball team — whose season had just ended the previous Friday — SRRHS had only two practices with the full team under its belt. The rust showed. The Scorpions were trounced 25-0.

While first-year coach Bri Young did state that one of the problems is that the team is used to losing, she also noted that losses like that won’t keep the team down.

“They’re not going to be discouraged by this,” Young said. “Unfortunately they’re used to losing. But they’re going to come out with just as much enthusiasm tomorrow as they did yesterday. It doesn’t matter if they won or lost. And I love that about them.”

“They love to work hard and they love to be challenged,”
she added. “And they’re out here because that’s what they want. Which is great. I love teaching here because that’s the culture of this school. These kids want to be challenged. They want to do well.”

While the Scorpions don’t have seniors, they do have experienced leaders at key positions. Two of the team’s more experienced players are in the starting battery, with juniors Bella Horton [pitcher] and Lesley Suarez [catcher].

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Horton acknowledged that fighting through the struggles to develop a winning mentality will be a challenge. But she also feels that the girls on the team have the work ethic to make it happen.

“This is my third year on this team — I know a lot of these girls from last year,” Horton said, “They all show really hard work and are trying. We just need to get that mentality that we can win and that we are a good team. Because it’s really tough sometimes.”

Another leader on the team is Annabelle Cook, who bats lead-off and plays the always important shortstop position. While she’s a freshman, Cook, who plays travel ball, is actually one of the more experienced softball players on the SRRHS team.

She sees games like the loss in the opener as an opportunity for the young team to learn from its mistakes, improve on them and come back better.

“I think we need to come back stronger,” Cook said. “We need to really think about what we did and come back with a vengeance and really focus on that and nail it in. Then come back and just drill it in.”

Being a young team with such little experience will undeniably make the Scorpions the underdogs essentially every time they take the field. That’s not a secret to them but it’s also not a detriment. In fact, Young believes it to be a positive for the players on the team.

“They love to play,” Young said. “Our catcher, Lesley, is always excited to be out here. She’s pumped up. She knows that we’re the underdogs but she’s excited about it. That’s important in anything really — stay excited about whatever it is you’re doing.”

Cook, who was also a starting guard on the Sedona basketball team, sees some similarities between the two teams. While the players on the basketball team generally had more experience, they were also young, with one senior on the team and the rest of the players either freshmen or sophomores.

“We’re young. It’s like basketball. All we can do from here is get better,” Cook said. “These girls are so amazing. It’s amazing to come out and watch the team chemistry. I hope that we just stay together and build a good program for the future. We’re just going to keep getting better and better.”

The Scorpions will be in action for a home double-header against Joseph City on Thursday, March 5 with games starting at 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. Following that, their next game will be against American Leadership Academy – Ironwood at 3:45 p.m. on Tuesday, March 17.

Michael Dixon can be reached at 282-7795 ext 131 or email to mdixon@larsonnewspapers.com

 

Michael Dixon

Michael was born and raised in Northern California. After living there for all of his life, he moved to Northern Arizona in summer, 2019. He has more than a decade's experience covering sports for his hometown paper in California as well as writing for Bleacher Report and Sportsnaut.com. Always feel free to let Michael know about things that you and your family and friends are doing in sports.

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Michael was born and raised in Northern California. After living there for all of his life, he moved to Northern Arizona in summer, 2019. He has more than a decade's experience covering sports for his hometown paper in California as well as writing for Bleacher Report and Sportsnaut.com. Always feel free to let Michael know about things that you and your family and friends are doing in sports.