Shining Ray-der

Shelly Baumann isn't a big fan of sports jargon, but the Cibola softball coach also knows an accurate term is an accurate term.

She might shutter at calling Sarah Ray a workhorse, but she also knows there's no better term for the Raider starting pitcher.

Ray earned the 2009 The Sun/Yuma Rotary Softball Player of the Year award for her effort in the circle for the Raiders, who cruised through the 5A Gila Valley Region perfect and won two in the 5A-II State Softball Tournament.

"I hate the term, but she really was a workhorse. We were in every single game because we had her," Baumann said. "We had a little bit of everything; that's what made our year real special. But you have to have pitching. I hate use that terminology, but you have to have a pitcher."

Ray was 14-6 with a 0.95 ERA in the regular season for the Raiders and gave up just one earned run in four postseason games, tossing two shutouts. She was 8-0 with a microscopic 0.30 ERA in league play. For the regular season, she struck out 112 and walked 14 in 1172/3 innings, including 63 strikeouts and four walks in 47 region innings.

 "I've been working hard the last couple years, during the season and the offseason," Ray said. "All my coaches have been a big help. They've put in their time also."

Ray, a junior, credits the relationship with catcher Kacy Boyd for a lot of her success.

"We all worked hard and we all get better," Ray said. "Me and my catcher worked hard every day."

Even with just three seniors on this year's team, both Baumann and Ray had high expectations at the start of the year, and losing the way the Raiders did - 10 errors in two playoff losses - was a tough pill to swallow.

"I wanted to go all the way, but I'm still proud of my team," Ray said. "We still went pretty far and did pretty good.
 "It's hard to lose because of all those errors," she said. "But we did good the rest of the time. That one game killed us."

As good a year as Ray had, Baumann still sees room for improvement.

"Sometimes her rise ball would work, sometimes it wouldn't," Baumann said. "She needs to get to the point where she can throw any single pitch at anytime and be productive with it."

One part of Ray's game that is overlooked, Baumann said, is her defense.

"Anytime there's anything hit back at her, she'd make the play," Baumann said. "Teams would do push bunts, I had her covering all the left side and kept our first baseman back because I had that much confidence in her fielding and her throwing."

With expectations for next season bound to be even higher for the Raiders, Ray said the 2009 campaign was a positive one.

"It would have been nice to get a little further at the end," Ray said, "but we still did really good."