Keaton Magnuson is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Campo Verde for AZPreps365.com.

The Coyotes came off of their 8-7 win over Williams Field on Monday night with the intention of putting together a string of wins. Unfortunately, they drew a tough challenge in the Horizon Huskies from Scottsdale, who just beat Arcadia 17-2 this past Tuesday.

Campo Verde held a 10-6 record going into the game, having lost six of their last eight games.

“I’ve been telling our guys all year long that it’s a growing process,” said Campo Verde Manager Jeff Singer. “The battle we’ve had after the 8-0 start; it shows that expectations can change a little bit.”

Horizon’s Kyle Justice supplied a majority of the damage, going 3 of 4 with two doubles and two RBIs. If that wasn’t enough of a struggle for Campo Verde, they also had to face Justice on the mound where he tossed five scoreless innings including four strikeouts with only two baserunners allowed.

“I was just looking for a first-pitch fastball, if it was there,” said Campo Verde senior Channing Gibbs. “If I got into a two-strike count, [I’d] choke up on the bat and try to go the other way. Balls just didn’t fall for us today.”

With the Coyotes offense stuck in neutral, it was junior starting-pitcher Garrett Ahern doing his best to keep the game in his control. Ahern went 5 ⅓  innings, giving up only two earned runs, a Huskies two-run opposite-field homer in the fourth. But a couple of errors from Campo Verde and a stretch of base hits would force Ahern out of the game in the sixth. He was very aggressive in filling the zone through the entirety of his start, having thrown 59 of his 94 pitches for strikes. He would finish with three strikeouts.

“We just wanted to go out there and attack them,” said Campo Verde catcher Luke Jones. “We’re trying to keep them second guessing and I thought (Ahern) did a good job until that bad inning.”

The game continued to trend in the wrong direction for the Coyotes as Horizon scored another four runs following Ahern’s departure. Campo Verde’s issues stemmed from the infield’s battle with errors, since Horizon was so precise in their approach to hitting the ball to all fields.

“We got to really lean into the things we expect to do, if we’re going to be a good baseball team and that’s what this is,” said Singer. “(If) we don’t take care of the baseball then we know what the result is going to be.”

All the Coyotes can do is learn from these types of games. They’ve played some quality baseball already this year with big wins against Cienega and Valley Christian, but they’re still tinkering with how to maintain a consistent level of play that’ll lead to sizable growth and, hopefully, a deep playoff run. 

The Huskies move to 13-2 and further separate themselves from the rest of the teams in the 5A Northeast Valley division. As for Campo Verde, their record falls to 10-7 while they look ahead to their next game at Casa Grande.