Feb. 25 marked the beginning of the high school baseball season. West Valley Preps asked coaches from Glendale and Peoria to take a look at their teams:

CACTUS COBRAS

4A West Valley Region

Coach: Jay McArthur (Second year as Cactus coach)

2025 Record: 8-18, 4-6 region

What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? We have come out swinging the bats. Aggressive  approach at the plate has produced great numbers in a 6-2 start. The best at Cactus since 2008.

What will your team need to improve for the season to be a success? Defensively we need to strengthen a little bit.

Who are your team leaders? Captains are Jordan Marrufo, Eli Torres, and Raven Anderson. Other top returning players are junior Jackson Dunphy, junior David Niedosik, junior  Ty Sweeney, sophomore Degan Thomas and sophomore Adrian Corona.

Who are newcomers to the varsity squad that could make an impact? Senior Cristian Hawkins and sophomore Julian Navarro.

What needs to happen for your squad to reach the state tournament this season, or reach the goals the program has set? Continue to play as one, play by the motto we have instilled of "beat the teams we are supposed to, and surprise the ones we are not supposed to."

CENTENNIAL COYOTES

5A Northwest Valley Region

Coach: Jon Williams (seventh year as coach)

2025 Record: 24-9, 10-0 region (5A state champions)

What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? We are a young team and our strength will be the development of our underclassmen

What will your team need to improve for the season to be a success? We will need to learn from every game we play to grow into the team we know we can become.

Who are your team leaders? Seniors Xavier Escontrias, Nicholas Williams, and Blake Baehr.

Who are newcomers to the varsity squad that could make an impact? Mateo Escontrias (sophomore), Julio Martinez (sophomore), and Colton Fitch (junior). Transfers that will help Erik Lopez (sophomore, Liberty), Dennis Carey (junior, Liberty) and Nate Coutts (senior, Mountain Ridge).

What needs to happen for your squad to reach the state tournament this season, or reach the goals the program has set? We will need to win the games that we are supposed to win early in the season and hope that our younger guys develop during that time so when our transfers are cleared we are clicking at the end of the season.

DEER VALLEY SKYHAWKS

4A West Valley Region

Coach: Erik McMahon (First year as Deer Valley coach)

2025 Record: 19-10-1, 10-0 region (Reached 4A quarterfinals)

What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? All starting juniors returned for their senior season. We have good not great overall hitting but have some top loaded arms this year.

What will your team need to improve for the season to be a success? Chemistry, game reps with each other.

Who are your team leaders? Maxton Weaver, Cameron Waddell and Brennan Larson

Who are newcomers to the varsity squad that could make an impact? Brennan Larson and Gabe Elliot. Brennan is a transfer (from Valley Lutheran). He’s a junior and already committed to Wake Forest. He throws 93-95 mph. Gabe Elliot is a freshman with some electric stuff, he will be one to watch as he gets older.

What needs to happen for your squad to reach the state tournament this season, or reach the goals the program has set? For us to reach our goals we need to stay focused on one game at a time, with 1 and 0 mentality and stay together in difficult situations.

GLENDALE PREP GRIFFINS

2A West Region

Coach: Rick Green (third year as Glendale Prep coach)

2025 Record: 16-4, 7-1 region (Reached 2A quarterfinals)

What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? Experience and our defense.

What will your team need to improve for the season to be a success? We just need to have some of the new/young  players fill in at a couple positions.

Who are your team leaders? Corbin Kim is the only senior, and the backbone of the team. Hits around .500, he’s fast and can play multiple positions.

Who are newcomers to the varsity squad that could make an impact? Freshman Wil Rosenblum will not only make an impact for us this year, but especially in the future. Good size, good power, good speed, and pitches both right and left handed.

What needs to happen for your squad to reach the state tournament this season, or reach the goals the program has set? Like every year, we just need to have reliable pitching, consistent hitting and especially solid defense like we had last season.

LIBERTY LIONS

6A Desert Valley Region

Coach: Chris Raymond (10th year as coach)

2025 Record: 17-13, 4-4 region (First round of 6A playoffs)

What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? Defensively we will be really solid.  One of the best middle infields I have ever coached.

What will your team need to improve for the season to be a success? We will need to focus one day at a time. 

Who are your team leaders? Jackson Asher, Abram Sherrin, Ervey Quijada, Brady Gardner and Max Jaramillo.

Who are newcomers to the varsity squad that could make an impact? Freshman Jonah Hargrave and junior transfer Bobby Villa (from Centennial).

What needs to happen for your squad to reach the state tournament this season, or reach the goals the program has set? Embrace the idea of 1-25.  We need our whole roster to compete and be successful at the 6A level.

O’CONNOR EAGLES

6A Desert Valley Region

Coach: Jeff Baumgartner (24th year as coach)

2025 Record: 21-12, 6-2 region (Final six of 6A playoffs)

What is your team’s best attribute entering this season? We built an identity on pitching and defense and have a strong returners up the middle with Jacoby Noble at short and Giovany Montoya-Boncore, who may be the best defensive outfielder in the state.

What will your team need to improve for the season to be a success? Constantly working on run production. Trying to get our offense working and cutting down on strikeouts.

Who are your team leaders? Mikey Leslie, Tommy Pascanu and Brent Sollars are our captains.

Who are newcomers to the varsity squad that could make an impact? Jameson Mohler is a sophomore catcher who will start. Clayton Sheets can be a plus defender at third base.

What needs to happen for your squad to reach the state tournament this season, or reach the goals the program has set? We need to stay healthy and have two arms make a big jump for us this season. Our depth is always a strength, but we need a couple guys to step up and be dudes.