Arop Kual is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Deer Valley High School for AZPreps365.com.

The Deer Valley Skyhawks baseball kicked off their 2024 season by beating St. Mary’s Knights 11-1 win on Tuesday. The Skyhawks were at home and impressed their large crowd who came out to support the team.

Junior Nate Gentz hit a home run and recorded three RBIs to lead Deer Valley.

The Knights opened up the scoring with Luis Mejia getting an RBI in the first inning to make it 1-0. The Skyhawks turned things around by scoring six runs in the third inning.

“We looked like we were pressing a little bit in the first but we were confident in our pitcher Tanner, he wouldn't let up many runs,” coach Greg Rice stated.

After failing to score in the first two innings, Rice said he told his players to trust the process and not be anxious.

Senior Tanner Theall was the Skyhawks pitcher for this game where he had six strikeouts in five innings with a pitch count of 70.

“I played it my way, felt like I controlled the game, slowed the pace down,” Theall stated. “It is my last year before college so I want to dominate every game and build my confidence.”

He added he was annoyed after allowing a run during the first inning but he put things aside and kept moving forward.

“It was a critical part of our season we needed to come out strong thinking it was going to be a close game throughout,” Gentz said.

Gentz felt like it took them a while to get adjusted to the Knights pitchers and were batting slower during their first time at bat.

“Our team always comes from behind that’s what we learned from preseason, we knew we just had to get adjusted to their pitcher,” Gentz said. “We need to keep the momentum going not underestimate any teams.”

Junior Hunter Short said he felt like the team needed to start off hot instead of starting off slow then the team could perform really well.

“I think it is a good starting point for the team, we could hit the ball well today,” he said.

Rice said that he felt like the team had first-game jitters during the first and second innings but got over that once the third inning started.

“It’s always good to have a crooked number and get guys on base, it’s like our theme to get runners on base for our big hitters,” he said.

Last season, the Skyhawks finished with a record of 12-7 with their freedom game record being 5-4. Rice felt like not capitalizing on their freedom games is what led to missing out on the playoffs.

“One game at a time, with freedom games you can’t drop, when it’s against good teams you got to take care of those powerpoint wins,” Rice stated.

The Skyhawks took that opening-game momentum into the second game of the season against Yuma on Wednesday and won by the same 11-1 score. 

They will next be traveling away from home against American Leadership Academy Gilbert on Friday.