With eight games to play, Prescott High School’s freshmen are bringing the team up fast in the 4A Conference.

Monday, April 12, the Badgers exploded for six runs in the third inning and five more in the fifth to stay undefeated on the season and send Estrella Foothills High School home early, 16-4.

It was Prescott’s ninth double-digit win of the season and its fourth to trigger the Arizona Interscholastic Association mercy rule and keep the Badgers among 4A's top five teams.

The Badgers moved on up to fourth in 4A, returning to their bat-blasting ways after needing eight innings and an error at third base Saturday, April 10, to edge Coconino High School, 5-4. 

Sophomore Ava Hlavacek, junior Leigha Walker and senior Sophia Fanchin joined shortstop Makayla Reyes to bat in runs on the road for the 10-0 Badgers, who remain in position for a potential battle in the final week of the regular season with second-ranked Mingus Union High School for the Grand Canyon Region title.

“We know it is going to be a big challenge,” said Badgers head coach Randall Bryan, who is on pace for Prescott’s first winning season and first state tournament appearance in five years. “Mingus is a very good and well-coached team.”

But without the youth serving the program as well as in Prescott, where freshmen Eliza Legge and Rylee Parra are taking turns mowing down the competition on the mound.

Legge, whose 0.91 earned-run average ranks sixth among all 4A pitchers, struck out 10 Coconino batters through nearly seven shutout innings Saturday, April 10. 

Then Parra went the distance against Estrella Foothills, striking out seven and going three-for-three at the plate with a home run to help her cause.

“We knew we would be a good team,” Bryan said. “At this point in the season, it is always a pleasant surprise to be undefeated.”

With credit due, he noted, to contributions from not just Legge and Parra but all 15 of his players, including Reyes, the team’s lone remaining all-region honoree. 

Reyes, named second-team all-Grand Canyon in 2019, is not just among the conference leaders in stolen bases and runs scored as the team’s shortstop. She can also pick up both Parra and Legge in relief on the mound, as she did the final two innings April 10, stranding the final Panther runner in scoring position to get the save.

Reyes, who also ranks in the top five in 4A in runs batted in with 22, also doubled in a run and scored three more herself to make the difference against the Panthers. Like Parra, Reyes had a solo shot out of the park April 12, along with a double to rack up another three RBIs.

Outfielders Dana Seavey and Ruby Tessman added two RBIs apiece for the Badgers in support of a team offensive barrage that will need to be sustained during a home stretch against all regional opponents.

“At this time, I think the team is looking forward to finishing strong and giving ourselves a chance to contend for a region title,” Bryan added. “Our ultimate goal is to make a good run in the postseason.”

Which hasn’t happened in Bryan’s tenure since 2016, when his Badgers fell in the second round of the state tournament to runner-up Cactus High School.

“We are trying to take one game at a time and hopefully will be there at the end,” he said. “We realize we still have work ahead to get to where we want to go.”

Starting with making up four games of Grand Canyon ground on Mingus, whose 8-0 regional record includes sweeps of Lee Williams High School and Flagstaff, the Badgers’ upcoming opponents beginning Wednesday, April 14.

“Flagstaff looks good, and Bradshaw [Mountain High School] is a big rival game” April 20 and 22, Bryan said. “We will have some difficult games coming up.”