Raymundo Frasquillo Photo/Gila Herald: Malina Martinez tries to catch a fly ball during the 2023 softball camp. The 2024 softball camp will also be held on the Morenci Veterans Memorial Fields, with two sessions beginning at 7:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. from June 20-22.
By Raymundo Frasquillo
MORENCI – Class of 1989 Morenci grad Jerod Aker returns to his hometown to conduct a three-day baseball fundamentals camp from Thursday, June 20 to Saturday, June 22. Two sessions, the first for ages 5-7 begin at 7:30 a.m. and the second for ages 8-18 start at 9 a.m. The Morenci Recreation Center is sponsoring the Francis Waldorf Stadium-held camp.
Currently the head coach at Glendale Apollo, Aker has returned to Morenci every year since leaving following the 2005 season. It is his way of giving back to a community supporting him as a standout MHS student-athlete and as a head coach of 10 years. The Wildcats posted a 180-80 (.692) overall record during his tenure from 1996-2005.
This past season, the Glendale school finished 20-12 overall, 9-9 seeding, 3.3229 rating, and 8-4 in the 5A Northwest Region for third. It is the 11th season of earning 20 or more wins and the Hawks are 343-181 (.655) following 18 seasons (2007-24) under Aker. The Aker-coached teams reached 500 wins, 12-1 (6 inn) over Willow Canyon on April 3, 2023, and are currently 523-261 (.667), or two wins for every three games played.
Apollo bowed out of the 2024 state tourney with a 4-7 first-round loss to No. 3 Nogales (17-8, 13-4, 10.6882, 6-0 Sonoran Region for first) as No. 14, following a 5-4 play-in win over No. 12 Lake Havasu (18-5-1, 15-3, 6.7666, 11-1 Desert West Region for first) as No. 21.
The 47-team 5A class is divided into eight regions, the Central Valley, Desert West, Metro, and Northwest Regions with each having seven members; the San Tan Region having six teams, the Northeast Valley having five teams, and the Sonoran and Southern Regions with both having four teams.
Other members of the 5A Northwest Region included No. 2 Peoria Sunrise Mountain (29-5-1 overall, 15-3 seeding, 11.1115 rating, 11-1 region for first), No. 8 Peoria Centennial (22-7, 14-4, 8.8164, 9-3 region for second), No. 26 Phoenix Paradise Valley (14-12, 10-8, 1.7660, 7-5 region for fourth), No. 31 Surprise Willow Canyon (10-17, 6-12, minus 1.1100, 5-7 region for fifth), No. 37 Glendale Ironwood (6-16, 4-14, minus 8.5294, 1-11 region for sixth), and No. 39 Glendale Raymond S. Kellis (5-21, 2-16, 11.6073, 1-11 region for seventh).
Second-ranked Sunrise Mountain ended as the state runner-up with a 1-8 loss to top-ranked Queen Creek Casteel (25-6, 15-3, 13.3051, 9-1 San Tan Region for first), and No. 8 Centennial was eliminated 3-9 by No. 5 Phoenix Mountain Pointe (18-13, 13-5, 9.3453, 7-3 San Tan Region for second).
