consistent theme for Sedona Red Rock High School’s baseball team over the first five games of the season. Every game has been either a lopsided win or loss. Unfortunately for the Scorpions, the game against Camp Verde on Monday, April 5, fell into the latter category.
The Cowboys led 2-0 after two innings and broke the game open in the third, scoring eight runs to open up a 10-0 lead to effectively end the game. Camp Verde added six more runs to open up a 16-1 lead after five innings. At that point, the game was stopped due to the 10-run rule.
“It just comes down to, we’re not playing good baseball,” SRRHS senior catcher Matt Capozzi said. “We’ve been doing this a while. I’m not really sure what’s going on. We’ve just got to show up and be ready to play. It hasn’t shown in the past few games. But right now, at this point of the season, we’ve got to get it turned on. We’ve got to get it going.”
Not much went right for the Scorpions on Monday. A single from freshman infielder Leo Wesley and an RBI double from Capozzi — which drove in senior shortstop Jaiah Grondin — were the only hits the Sedona batters recorded. Wesley and Grondin drew the only walks on the afternoon. Sedona hitters struck out nine times. By contrast, the SRRHS pitchers recorded only four strikeouts.
The loss moved the Scorpions to 3-2 on the season. While a standard high school game is seven innings, games are called early if a team holds a 10-run lead after five. Thus far, none of the SRRHS games have even reached the sixth inning. Sedona’s wins were 20-2 over Desert Heights Prep Academy, 28-0 against North Pointe Prep and 16-4 over Glendale Prep. Prior to losing 16-1 to the Cowboys, the Scorpions lost 10-0 to Northland Prep Academy.
Following the defeat against Camp Verde, the SRRHS team consistently noted a malaise that the team has had for much of the season. That begs one question. Has playing in nothing but blowouts contributed to the problem?
“A little bit,” Scorpion senior Dakota Farrar said. “We’re going against teams that we run-rule or against guys that we can definitely compete with — but we’re just down where we’ve run-ruled teams. And we’re becoming lazy from that.”
His coach, Pedro Ortega Sr., agreed.
“You’ve still got to compete,” Ortega said. “Even when you are down you’ve got to find a way to extend it to see what you can find in the sixth and seventh innings. Because anything can happen then. We haven’t been able to get to that point.”
There’s good for the Scorpions. A loss to the 3A won’t hurt them much in the 2A standings. Sedona is 3-1 in the 2A Conference and the 2A Central Region. The upcoming schedule could bring good news, as well, though it could also bring bad news.
The first step didn’t go well for Sedona. The Scorpions went on the road to take on a strong Scottsdale Prep team on Wednesday, April 7. It was the first game all season to go seven innings, but the Spartans notched a 12-3 victory. Sedona trailed only 4-3 after the top half of the fourth but Scottsdale scored twice in the home half of the fourth, once in the fifth and five times in the sixth to put the game away.
The Scorpions and Spartans will meet again in a rematch shortyle, with SRRHS hosting Scottsdale on Friday, April 16, at 3:45 p.m. In between the two games with the Spartans, the Scorpions will be home against Desert Heights at 3:45 p.m. on Tuesday, April 13. On Tuesday, April 20, at 3:45 p.m., Sedona will see NPA again.
If the Scorpions continue to play flat, it’s possible that they will struggle through that stretch and effectively play themselves out of postseason contention. But if Sedona can find a spark and post a winning record through those games, a potential playoff spot will look more secure.
“This is our fourth year playing together,” Capozzi said after the Camp Verde game. “We’re going through the motions and not working on our individual things. We’re just kind of taking reps. Right now, we need to hit practice. We haven’t played a seven-inning game. It’s either been easy or we’ve played bad. We’ve got to get back at it in practice and find our work ethic again.”
