February ushers in temperate sunshine as well as snowbirds to the Valley when the desert transforms into baseball paradise.

From the Cactus League, college and high school baseball teams welcome an early spring as well as a new season.

And each season is filled with unique challenges, rivalries, and strategies.

The Scottsdale Community College Artichokes hosted the Central Arizona College Vaqueros in a non-conference matchup on the eve of jumping into the thick of their schedule.

SCC head coach Ty Gavin told Northeast Valley News his strategy of pulling sophomore right-handed-pitcher Hudson Harrison just after two innings even though he came out firing, making quick work of the first six batters he faced.

“We start conference play later this week, so the goal was to have everyone available for our conference games. Today was a designated bullpen day of 1-2 innings per guy, and he threw great and did his job. Then it’s just about getting the next guy in there seeing who’s got what and who is going to contribute in certain spots.”

Harrison ended his day without allowing a baserunner through two innings and also racking up a nice strikeout against freshman infielder Kamden Lanphere.

After Harrison exited the mound, the struggles began for the Artichokes.

In the third inning CAC went up 3-0 after four hits and a sacrifice fly.

The fourth wasn’t any better as two more came across home plate for CAC due to two costly errors in the field for SCC and another single from Freshman outfielder Jaylen Payne who went on to achieve three hits in this contest.

Marcus Metz also had a dominant outing on the mound for the Vaqueros.

Metz ended his start with 6K, 0BB, 0R, and only 3H.

Metz told Northeast Valley News, “Slider was moving well and it was an amazing opportunity to give all the glory to God.”

Metz said his teammates helped him out a lot on the offensive side of the ball, providing 12 hits and 10 runs including a monster second inning two run double from redshirt sophomore Brett Rozin.

“We have full trust in our 38 guys that they are going to go out and compete every pitch every inning and we have full faith that our guys on offense are going to go get us runs and all we have to do is compete and throw strikes,” Gavin said.

SCC was able to make a slight comeback in the seventh inning when they drew four walks capitalizing on with a three-run inning.

CAC responded by taking advantage of the eighth and ninth innings putting together four runs and five hits spread out amongst the Central offense but harnessed by freshman infielder Kamden Lanphere who had a very clutch base hit in the ninth to put Kayle Pisano into scoring position.

The Artichokes were uncharacteristically quiet at the plate despite having put up multiple double-digit victories earlier in the season including a 15-0 win over  Ottawa University JV

As a team, they only were able to muster up five hits with three runs to show from it, and they also left nine players on base.

When asked about the challenges at the plate Wednesday, Gavin told Northeast Valley News, “When they give us the freebies whether its walks or errors, we need to cash in and get those big hits with runners in scoring position.”

Gavin looks forward to getting his team back into the groove with their potent offense.