Ethan Briggs is an Walter Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Skyline High School for AZPREPS365 

After a harsh 13-0 loss to Perry High School on Tuesday afternoon, the Skyline Coyotes came out looking to take a game back Wednesday afternoon against Sunnyslope High School.

Behind a strong pitching performance from an ailing Hayden Rasmussen, the Coyotes held Sunnyslope scoreless until the fifth inning when Sunnyslope cracked the scoreboard with one run. The final score would be just that, 1-0.

Rasmussen came out hot from the start of the game with a quick first inning and kept up the performance all the way through. 

Rasmussen struckout three and walked four while giving up five hits. 

“I felt mentally strong and physically strong, other than being sick. It’s a personal win for me, but at the end of the day it's a team sport,” said Rasmussen. 

Head coach Brian Gregory was disappointed by Wednesday’s loss but encouraged by Rasmussen’s abilities on the mound and the team’s overall contribution defensively.

“[Rasmussen] was dying out there today, he’s been kind of under the weather. Everything was working for him, there were times he fell behind but he dug deep and figured out how to get out of situations. Our defense played great, helped him out tremendously defensively,” Gregory said. 

Catcher Ryan Mioni gave a strong defensive outing behind the plate including a couple of foul balls that he caught for outs. He commended his teammates for their defensive efforts as well but pointed out that there was a lot of passiveness at the plate. 

“One thing we need to work on is just a better approach, being ready to hit and not waiting to get walked,” Mioni said.

No errors were made for the Coyotes which is a positive but without offensive success, winning baseball games is difficult.

There is room to grow because this was only the second game of Skyline's regular season. The Coyotes will be looking to build on tonight’s lessons.

“We’re a heck of a lot better team. Best thing we can do is come in tomorrow and work hard at practice and hopefully be ready to go on Friday,” said Rasmussen. 

Even though the Coyotes were unable to get a game back, it was not all bad. Lessons are there to be learned and after Wednesday’s loss, Skyline will be looking to internalize the lessons that are evident.