Four full games into the 2022 season, Sedona Red Rock High School hadn’t scored a run. Crossing home plate was step one, and it hadn’t happened yet. In game five, against Glendale Prep., the Scorpions finally got on the board. They scored 4 runs in a 23-4 loss, but the bigger number didn’t matter. Despite a lopsided final result, the small number was cathartic, because at least it was more than zero.
Two days later against North Pointe Prep., the crack of the bat never sounded sweeter. After 25 innings of play over a month, with only four runs to show for it, the Scorpions scored six in the first inning against the Falcons. The Scorpions batted around the order, sending 10 players to the plate and bringing six all the way home.
Sedona lost 23-11. But once again it was the smaller number that meant the most. This time that number wasn’t so little.
The score signified two things simultaneously: The work so far has been paying off, but it’s not even close to being enough.
“We need to start getting into a rhythm,” said head coach Chaz Andrzejewski. “And obviously we’ve done that the last week so I think as long as we can continue with that momentum, we’re going to see a lot more games where we score into the double digits and get a lot more runs.”
Early in the season, only a few players could get on base. Sophomore Leo Wesley and senior Eli Jennings are the team captains and were the clear standouts. But in just five games, contributions come from up and down the lineup.
Sophomore Noah Horton has stepped up at the plate and on the pitchers mound. Freshman Yonas Ruhman is the vocal leader and is in the midst of converting his raw bat into a strength in the heart of the lineup. Sophomore Reif Stevens has become the go-to relief pitcher on a squad that doesn’t have much, if any, experience on the mound.
For the first time all season, this feels like a baseball team.
“That’s how a team works. You have your highs and lows together and it bonds you,” Wesley said. “That’s how life is.”
Despite standing as a high school sophomore, Wesley gets it. He’s clearly frustrated by the losing. The sound of his voice says what he won’t. But he’s a leader of this team and he’s keenly aware that he needs to show them how to carry themselves. The results will come if things are done the right way.
“I think right now we’re just working on not getting too down on ourselves no matter what the score says,” he said. “We can’t get mad.”
The goal of this season all along has been to build a culture. Everyone on the team knows that. They just didn’t expect those results to be felt this quickly.
This team almost didn’t happen. Andrzejewski needed to recruit players from his Spanish class to field a team. Now the program is constantly gaining experienced talent as the season goes on.
“They’ve really became a team. We just keep growing,” Andrzejewski said. “Every week it seems like there’s a new player that wants to come out … As long as we can keep the momentum up with the bats and focus more on defense, I feel like we’re going to really excel the next few games.”
The building blocks are being placed as the games go by. The struggles are still felt on the defensive side. The lack of in-game experience leads to blunders that only more time on the dirt can fix. But a game from the stands can show you, this group of young men love each other. They’ve bought in and the stock price on Sedona baseball will only rise.
“I appreciate seeing a lot of new players on our team,” said junior Mccauley King. “It’s been really cool watching them grow and I’m overall pretty happy about this game especially because we see growth every day … I see a few players that I’m like, ‘I’m so glad you’re a freshman.’”
