Defeating Desert Heights Prep Academy on Tuesday, April 13 was nice for Sedona Red Rock High School’s baseball team. It ended a two-game funk, which saw SRRHS outscored by a combined score of 28-4. But Sedona knew that the Friday, April 15 game against Scottsdale Prep Academy would be the real test. The test was passed.
As they had done against DHPA earlier in the week, the Scorpions struck early, scoring nine runs against the Spartans in the first inning. But after the strong offensive start against the Coyotes, Sedona’s offense went flat. That resulted in a close, 11-8 victory. It didn’t happen against SPA. The Spartans did rally to close the gap, but the Scorpions responded in kind and came away with a 16-10 win.
“We saw what happened against Desert Heights and we kind of knew that we had to stay in the game and not just flatline,” senior Nate Ross said. “We have to keep our heads up, we can’t be satisfied. We turned the gas up and stayed in the game. We had a fourth inning slump but it was a lot different than it was with Desert Heights.”
“A big thing was the energy — It really plays a part with enthusiasm,” added senior Dakota Farrar. “Wanting to play the game really helped our batting and I think we took off today a little bit more. And that helped us get runs on the board.”
Senior catcher Matt Capozzi and senior second baseman Caleb Jennings pounded out four hits each for Sedona. Three of Capozzi’s hits were doubles, while Jennings had a double and a triple.
All nine hitters in the Scorpions starting lineup recorded at least one hit and scored at least one run, with Jennings and Ross both scoring three times. In a sign of how deep the SRRHS offensive attack was, the winning run was driven in by No. 9 hitter, freshman Benji Cook.
“The whole roster kind of took their turns,” Sedona coach Pedro Ortega Sr. said. “In the first inning, we went through the whole nine guys, which means we’re doing something right.”
Ross started the game at pitcher for Sedona. He pitched two shutout innings before allowing three in the third. The Spartans got another three off of Ross in the fourth before he was relieved by Jaiah Grondin, with Ross taking Grondin’s normal position of shortstop. One run scored off of Grondin to close the gap to 9-7, but he retired the side from there.
The Scorpions added one run in the home half of the fourth and — after Grondin shut Scottsdale out in the fifth — opened the lead up to 13-7 in the bottom of the inning. That gave Sedona enough of a cushion to withstand the Spartans three-run rally in the top of the sixth, which the Scorpions answered with three of their own in the bottom of that inning.
The win moved Sedona to 5-3 overall and 5-2 in both the 2A Conference and 2A Central Region. While the Scorpions did lose on Saturday, April 17 to move to 5-4 overall, that loss came to a 3A Chino Valley team, leaving the conference and region records unchanged.
Beating the Spartans not only avenged a 12-3 loss from earlier in the season but gave the Scorpions a win over a good team. With that, a malaise that had hit the Scorpions through much of the season — including during some of the wins — went away.
“I thought we played with a lot more intensity than we had before,” senior outfielder Jamie Alagna said. “A big problem we had before was our energy. A lot of us would be in the dugout or in the field and wouldn’t be in the game. We’d kind of be sitting there and waiting for the ball to come to us but not really expecting it. This time we changed the tempo. Everyone was wanting the ball to come to them and we were hitting the ball.”
