Kaylee Watson, baser runner at Mingus Union High School, dives back to first base shortly before Alyssa Williams from Flagstaff tries to pick it up. Watson kicked off the Marauders, who went undefeated in seven games with a 6-3 home win on April 1 against the Eagles. (George Werner / AzPreps365.com)
For the past three years, John Brown has coached the Mingus Union High School softball team to hot starts, including winning the Marauders’ first 10 non-tournament games in Arizona’s final full high school softball season in 2019.
But while that seemingly ancient story has made him reigning Coach of the Year in the Grand Canyon Region, John Brown’s body can’t beat or beat the Marauders to their elusive first state championship in their ten-year tenure.
Proven she could get by on both Tuesday and Thursday, March 30th and April 1st, junior pitcher Alexis Ayersman handed rival Flagstaff his first two losses, leaving only Prescott challenged to the Marauders for the title in the region remained undefeated.
The Badgers follow Mingus 6-0 by half a game with 12 games. The Marauders have the second-best record in the 4A conference for the head of the Southwest Region, Paradise Honors High School, who was unbeaten in the first eight games.
However, after the former bitter rival Marauders home game in Flagstaff, no other team at the top of the region can get close to Mingus.
“We both get a little tight when we play against each other,” said Brown. “It’s a good tension because we’re friendly rivals this year. But [in] Years ago we weren’t that friendly. “
Ayersman beat 19 Batters in two aggregate wins against the Eagles, adding a doubles, four singles, and their second home run of the season to give Mingus an offensive punch.
“I very rarely take her out of the game when she starts because she has a pretty good rhythm,” said Brown, who is enjoying his deepest undefeated start as none of his previous Mingus teams were unbeaten in April. “If she doesn’t fight, I won’t get her out.”
In their 6-3 home win over Flagstaff on the April Fool’s afternoon, Ayersman also knocked out three of the Marauders’ last four RBIs in the last two innings to try to overcome two of their six field mistakes that afternoon.
“And some infield games that they recovered and still did well,” countered Brown. “So I look away a little. They are inexperienced runs so I’m not too upset with them.
“They made up for it with their base run [and] They invented it with their bats. ”
It was Ayersman’s closest call, however, as he conceded regional rival Bradshaw Mountain High School the worst 10 hits in the six innings of the 2019 season-end loss to regional rival Bradshaw Mountain High School in the state tournament.
Until her solo shot into right midfield drew 2-2 in the fifth inning, it was the latest in a game Ayersman had worked from behind since that 8-5 defeat that ended at 14-5 Freshman- Season in which she hurled 114 strikeouts en route to the second-team award for all regions.
“There isn’t a drastic difference between her and my other pitcher,” said Brown of junior shortstop Marissa Vocca, who had doubles and took a run of her own in a home win on April 1 after seven batters in a shutout on March 18 had defeated in five innings by Lee Williams High School. “These two will probably start every other game unless I think you have the advantage in both games.
“Both pitchers are club ball pitchers: They throw four or five games in a weekend, so they’re used to throwing multiple games in a day, let alone a week.”
Flagstaff head coach Joe Snodgrass has made some adjustments successfully since he was expelled from Ayersman at home on March 30th. Then Ayersman only needed 88 spaces to take care of the Eagles, who had only five runners on the base in the 3-0 defeat.
“We’ve made big improvements since Tuesday,” said Snodgrass. “We just came up short. You are a good team. This [isn’t] the last time we’ll see her. “
Although Ayersman turned out to be all the Marauders would need in this shutout, she had help at home on April 1st. Senior Kaylee Watson actually kicked off the sixth inning, driven home by a brace from junior outfielder Mackenzie Figy.
With only one out in frame and Ayersman next in bat, Brown could afford to take risks with Figy and Senior Mallorie Copeland on the Basic Paths, and he did.
“We’re very aggressive on the bases,” said Brown. “Every run is important, even if you have to give up to get it.”
Ayersman’s sharp blow back to senior shortstop Andi Elliott set up a game on the plate in which Copeland slipped just ahead of Flagstaff catcher Lily Anderson, whose solo shot shot deep out of midfield in the fourth inning and brought the Eagles back into play lead, 2-1.
“She’s a great batsman,” Brown said of Anderson. “She got one and there was nothing we could do about it.”
When the dust settled, Ayersman aggressively stormed into the second base, which Anderson tried to throw them out onto. The litter was late, and by then Brown had sent Figy home from the third base to give the Marauders the triple pillow.
“I love getting the other team to throw the ball and we just keep going,” added Brown, whose aggressiveness weighed on the bases against Gracie Schmitz, Flagstaff’s second reliever. “They might get you sooner or later, but you could get a few runs first.”
Schmitz, who relieved the newcomer starter Gianna Baca after she had given up the sixth run, got out of the jam laden with bases with a strikeout and the choice of a field player.
Ayersman would still need her seventh hit in seventh rank to end Flagstaff, who had brought the tie run with runners in goal position and two outs on the plate.
“She got a lot of ground ball outs, which is just as important to me, so I’ll take it,” said Brown. “I am blessed to have depth in pitching and depth in catching. We have two backup infielder and one backup outfield.
“We have the perfect setup.”
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