After opening its season with a 20-2 win over Desert Heights Prep Academy and a 28-0 win over North Pointe Prep, Sedona Red Rock High School’s baseball team knew that the season’s third game — the home opener against Northland Prep Academy on Thursday, March 25 — was going to be a lot tougher. That’s exactly how the game played out.
The Scorpions struggled in pretty much all facets of the game. Spartans pitcher, senior Caiden Cribbs, kept the Sedona offense off balance throughout the game. Offensively, NPA opened up a 5-0 lead after two innings and scored at least once in every inning in a game that was called after five innings due to the 10-run rule. When it was over, the Scorpions were on the wrong end of a 10-0 final.
“We were looking forward to this game,” SRRHS coach Pedro Ortega Sr. said. “We somehow didn’t perform as I expected. But we’ve got to stay positive. Baseball is a humbling game. There’s a lot to learn today. We’ll go from there.”
One of the biggest mistakes the Scorpions made on the day was giving the Spartans rallies for free. Sedona pitchers held the Northland Prep hitters to a respectable five hits on the day — all singles.
But the Spartans still had runners on base all game, thanks to the Scorpions issuing eight walks and hitting two batters.
“I know that I’ve got to change my warmup routine because it was freaking cold,” Sedona starting pitcher, senior Nate Ross said while laughing. “When I get on the mound, I just need to get in my groove. Not worry about anything — weather, people, chatter. I just have to get in my zone.”
Of course, a loss can’t only be pinned on the struggles of the losing team. Cribbs deserves plenty of credit for his performance on the chilly afternoon. He went the full five innings, surrendering only a pair of hits to Ross and fellow senior, Jamie Alagna. Cribbs also walked only two Sedona hitters while striking out 10. With only a few baserunners all game, the Scorpions had no chance to get their usually potent running game going.
“It was a hot pitcher hitting the corners,” Ortega said. “We were not used to that. He was a good pitcher. They got us this time. We’ve got to make an adjustment. There’s a lot to learn. But it was good to see this guy out there so we can adjust to whatever we need.”
Something else that was noticeable even before the game against NPA and became more obvious during it was that the Scorpions first two games of the season — while both decisive wins — were probably net negatives.
While both are 2A Central Region rivals, Desert Heights Prep and North Pointe Prep are not expected to be among the top teams in the Region by the time the season ends.
“I don’t want to hate on them for no reason but it’s not good for us at all when we know who we’re up against,” SRRHS senior Jaiah Grondin said, citing NPA, Scottsdale Prep and Glendale Prep as the toughest teams in the Region. “When we get back-to-back games where we just blow them out, we get lazy ourselves. We get used to that style of pitching. Then we come here and that’s what we’re going to be seeing all season. We just couldn’t connect with the ball.”
When the game was over, Ortega told the Scorpions to try to find the positives from it.
During the course of the game, very few positives emerged for the Sedona team. But when it was over, the experienced Scorpions came away with something positive to take from it.
“A positive is we can see where we’re at right now,” Grondin said. “We know what we’ve got to work on. The game didn’t go the way that we thought it was going to go — at all. But I think it showed us what level we need to get to to continue this season.”
The Scorpions were in action on Tuesday, March 30 with a game at Glendale Prep. Sedona got back on track against the Griffins, banging out 15 hits in a 16-4 win.
While that was Sedona’s only game this week, SRRHS will be busy next week with three games. The Scorpions will host Camp Verde on Monday, April 5 at 3:45 p.m., will be at Scottsdale Prep for a 3:45 p.m. game on Friday, April 9 and will host North Pointe Prep on Saturday, April 10 at 2 p.m.
