Fort’s battery has power

There’s nothing cocky about Fort Defiance pitcher Payton Hill. And if it wasn’t for her age, it might come as a shock after you sit in the bleachers and watch her pitch.

She paints the corner like Sherwin Williams and has an off-speed pitch that spins heads as well as bats. You can even look at her record and think, at 5-0, she could toot her own horn and be done with it.

But, nah, when you’re a freshman just doing something you’ve been waiting to do since you were 8 — pitching for the varsity team — you’re not cocky. You call her confident and, to top it all off, her confidence isn’t all about her. It’s also about those behind her in the field and that senior right in front of her — catcher Cinnamon Snyder.

So don’t throw your hands in the air and say, “Here we go again,” when you ask Hill if she expected to start her freshman season with a spotless record and she answers, “Yes,” like she did after beating Stuarts Draft on Friday. Just let her finish the statement before you start thinking the hurler’s head is as big as her talent.

“Because I knew we had a lot of talent already up here,” she says.

And you’ll have a follow-up question ready. You know, just to make sure this isn’t a façade. And you’ll ask who she has more confidence in — herself or the team around her?

“The people around me,” she says with a smile. And she looks toward the dugout as the rest of the Indians pack up their bags and start walking toward the bus.

Plus, she has a calming force behind the plate in Snyder who’s no stranger to catching quality pitchers. And when your father is head coach Max Hill, a softball coach stuck in a baseball coach’s mentality, you need all the calm you can get.

“I had to pull Cinnamon out of class to tell her she has full permission to tell me to shut up if I get on Payton too hard,” says Fort coach Hill. “Cinnamon is our buffer.”

And it’s a buffer that has paid dividends for the Indians.

Heading into this week, the Indians sport a 10-1 overall record and are 3-0 in the Southern Valley. By sweeping the season series against upstart Stuarts Draft, Fort has given itself a two-game lead in the district standings. A lot of it has to do with Payton Hill in the circle and Snyder behind the plate.

Let’s be honest here, Payton is a freshman, and freshmen are prone to make those freshman-like mistakes.

“She’s had a few moments,” Snyder says. She calls them “first years,” and laughs.

But having caught part-time for the likes of Amber Hoffman and Brittany Davidson — two quality pitchers to go through the Fort program — Snyder knows the goods when she sees them. And even if Payton is a little rough around the edges, Snyder is well aware of the quality she’s dealing with.

“She’s up there” with those other names from the past, Snyder says. “She knows how to move the ball around out there.”

Payton, to go with her perfect record, has an ERA of .32 and has 22 strikeouts to her name. She’s also doing it with the bat, banging out 11 hits — including two doubles — for a .440 batting average.

Snyder’s calming force behind the plate is bringing the aluminum as well. She is hitting .391 and, from her crouching position behind the plate, has thrown out three of four runners trying to steal.

It’s the kind of soothing serenity that could make any coach-slash-father happy. Which explains why Max Hill smiles whenever he talks about the pair.

The hardest part of the double-duty for Hill is “trying to hold my mouth back,” he says. “You’re always harder on your own kid. And I know she’s got a lot of pressure on her because she’s the coach’s daughter.”

But none of this is new to Payton, who has been pitching since she was 8 — with her father in the dugout as the coach the whole time.

“I’m used to it,” she says.

Snyder wasn’t always used to catching. Though she looks right at home dressed like a “Road Warrior” extra behind the plate, she’s also pretty deft at third base, which was her original position. But coach Max Hill says she played too far down the line for his comfort.

“It makes me nervous,” the coach says. “But someone will hit a shot back to her and she catches it.”

Plus, he admits he needs her behind the plate as a soothing presence for both the hurler in the circle and the guy sitting on the bucket of balls.

“I just have to have her back there taking care of my pitchers,” he says. “I have a catcher that is smart and a catcher than can hit.”

And a catcher that has known Payton since the fifth grade.

No wonder the hurler is confident about those around her.