Dylan Breese is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Cactus High School for AZPreps365.com

Missed opportunities were the story for the Cactus Cobras in their 3-1 loss against the Flowing Wells Caballeros on Friday.

Six runners left on base and a two-out, seventh-inning error with the bases loaded cost the Cobras their second game in the Cowboy Up Baseball Tournament in Tucson.

Head coach Taylor Erwin constantly emphasizes the importance of executing with runners on base. 

“When I elaborate on that, they’re almost getting annoyed by it because I bring it up so much,” Erwin said. “When our top of the lineup comes up and gets on base and we have our 3-4-5-6 hitters coming up, we shouldn’t have what we do like that.”

The Cobras inability to capitalize on key opportunities constantly hurt them, but senior Peyton Arsenault believes the issue has a simple resolution.

“No-outs, one-out, guys on second or third just didn’t end up scoring which is an easy fix, we just gotta get the ball in the outfield after that,” Arsenault said.

Although they were unable to drive in many runs, their stellar defense and pitching kept them in the game.

Senior Levi Huerta pitched for the Cobras in the first of two games on the day, giving up one earned run and seven hits with seven strikeouts over seven innings pitched.

After giving up a run in the first inning, Huerta stayed calm and shut out the Caballeros offense until a costly error in the seventh inning.

Even with his solid performance on the mound, Huerta’ smain focus is on the offense, which has only produced one run so far this season.

“We just gotta execute, gotta put the ball in play, put the pressure on them and good things will happen,” Huerta said. “I’m just trying to win.”

Erwin iterated aggressiveness at the plate.

“I tell my kids, first time through the lineup, if it’s all fast balls first pitch, jump on it,” Erwin said. 

He also emphasized taking pitches to force the opposing pitcher to work harder.

“He (the Flowing Wells pitcher) was 48 pitches going into the fifth inning. Then he had 40 pitches in just the next three innings. When he started throwing more off speed [pitches], that’s when we started seeing more pitches because he was mixing up his pitches because he noticed we were jumping on the fastballs early.”

The Cobras final tournament game is against the Sahuaro Cougars at 3 p.m. on Saturday.