The Central Arizona Vaqueros baseball team is teaming with confidence and this one could have been had, but it wasn't.

Drama. Tension. Excitement.

Freshman starter Dakody Clemmer gave it all he had for 6.1 striking out six without giving up a run and when Head Coach Anthony Gilich made the change, it was the right time. In came sophomore Sam Myers with an era of 0.00 and all you can say is most days are better than others. The South Mountain Cougers ripped it deep and long a few times off Myers and fellow bullet boy Connor Noble scoring four runs in the top of the seventh and those runs held up in a 4-3 loss for Central.

Sebastian Zawada of South Mountain hit an MJ-like 380+ bomb to left in the nightmare inning, but Ben Nelson finished off the Cougars for the final 2.1.

With the exception of that Cougars 7th inning, it seemed like nobody hit anything hard all day. "Cans of Libby's" noted CAC Athletic Director Chuck Schnoor.

The Vaqueros blooped and ran and scored one in the eighth and in the bottom of the ninth, Central had bases jammed with one out trailing 4-3 with LSU-bound Colby Hamilton at the plate against side-swiper-floater Brandon Yslas. 

In a terrific at-bat and with two strikes, Hamilton hit a hard grounder to short, 6-4-3. Ball game.

"Oh oh. Man that kid hates to lose" said Hamilton's dad Scott with a half-smile, fully aware of what kind of mood his son would be in at the post-game.

Coach Gilich would say "don't worry about it kid, you're a good player", and dad would say "you'll get 'em next time", and Colby will get loving pats on the back and smiles from his guys, but there's nothing that can be said that heals this kind of disappointment for a player. Only time heals this kind of thing, or a rip in the gap today when the Vaqueros travel to Phoenix for a rematch with the Cougars.

Game time is 3pm. Central now stands at 1-2, 8-3.