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THE NIAA 4A SUNSET-SOUTHWEST BASEBALL LEAGUE is one of the strongest in big-school leagues in Nevada, with perennial national power Bishop Gorman HS also occupying a seat at the table. To run through what was a double round-robin schedule undefeated like the D’backs did last season borders on unthinkable.

“It’s a super competitive league with the teams that we play,” Buboltz said. “We’re only playing everybody once this year so every game is meaningful; every league game counts. It’s very, very important for the seedings for the playoffs, so it is like a mini state tournament as we go along.”

He also pointed out that the league on the other side of Las Vegas – the 4A Southern-Northwest League – is also very competitive. It features defending state championship Palo Verde along with traditional powers like Arbor View, Centennial and Bonanza (the Cubs’ Kris Bryant’s old school).

“They always bring something to the table, which is good; you don’t just want to roll through everyone,” Roberts said of the Desert Oasis’ Southwest League foes. “It’s really good having good competition around us because it makes us better as a whole. Our program, I feel like, has done better throughout the years because of the repetition of playing the good competition.”

It has been well-documented how much big-time MLB talent has come out of Vegas just in the decade with guys like Bryant, Bryce Harper and Joey Gallo gaining fame and fortune. Buboltz said the metropolitan area can no longer be called a “hidden gem” as far as producing top prospects because scouts have long known about how fertile this area of the desert has been (think Greg Maddux).

As for the current players, they’re just going out and playing the games that are in front of them, while also looking back on past successes and maybe even what ended up as a turning point or two.

Last March 28, the Diamondbacks lost a game to Palisades HS at the Lions Tournament in Pacific Palisades, Calif., that dropped their season record to 11-3. After that loss, they rattled of 18 straight wins, a streak that didn’t end until they were upended by Palo Verde in the playoffs.

Included in that streak were five wins in four days (April 4-7) at the Bishop Gorman Desert Classic, a stretch that Roberts said helped define the season.

“We knew then that we had the grasp and that we were on a roll,” he said. “It carried over into the rest of the games we played through the whole year. … “I definitely do think that the 18-0 is going to help us out a lot this year. We know that we’re able to compete and succeed in our league and I think that’s going to carry over and help us get even further than we did last year.”

The one thing that has eluded Desert Oasis is winning a state championship, but it’s important to remember that the school is only 11 years old. At the same time, Buboltz said the lack of success the program has had in the NIAA playoffs isn’t something the coaching staff runs away from.

In fact, Buboltz said, he has hung-up some things on the wall of the locker room that addresses the somewhat small elephant in the room with the hope of getting his players’ attention.

Every team in every state that takes pride in what it’s doing goes into a season with winning a state championship as its primary goal while also understanding that it’s not going to be easy. It’s talked about in locker rooms and in clubhouses and in the case of the Desert Oasis Diamondbacks, it’s something they believe is attainable.

“Our initial message is (to outline) what our expectations are and how we’re going to try to get over that hump,” Buboltz said. “A lot of it this year is just trying to instill the discipline and hard work in everything we do, school-wise, weight room-wise, outside of school, we’re just trying to get them to be more disciplined and buy into what we’re doing. Hopefully that will carry over onto the field.”

While performing at the PG National Showcase at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., in June, the senior Jefferson had this to say: “We have a great program. One of our mottos is to stay humble and get after it, and that’s truly it. … We lost in the playoffs but we’re truly happy with the season we had (in 2018).”

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COACH BUBOLTZ IS THRILLED TO HAVE THE FIVE D-I SIGNEES ON HIS ROSTER and noted that four of them are going to Pac-12 schools. There are only two D-I programs in Nevada – UNLV and UN Reno – and College of Southern Nevada in Vegas is the only prominent junior college. That limits the options for a kid who wants to stay home, but many of them, like Sharman, choose to do so.

The program receives a lot of support around the school, from the administration right on down to the student body. There’s a buzz when the baseball season rolls around and Buboltz reported that on signing day in November a good number of students gathered for a reception to watch the D-I guys ink their letters of intent.

“Not a lot of kids get a chance to play in a program like this,” Roberts said. “Coach ‘B’ runs a really good team and I’ve been on the team for the past four years now, and it’s just a really good program. You’ve got one of the best fields in the western United States, the coaching staff is great; everything is perfect.”

Buboltz said his “number-one goal” is simply to help his players enjoy what he hopes will be a memorable high school experience. If that leads to having an opportunity to further their baseball careers at the collegiate or professional level, well, that’s just gravy. If they come back to visit having established themselves in the “real world” outside of baseball, well, that works just fine, too.

And so, what about that lofty national ranking Perfect Game has bestowed on the Diamondbacks during this preseason? Is it something the players are even aware of? And, if so, is it something they've embraced?

“When we saw that Perfect Game came out with us 18^th in the country, you should have seen the whole team talking about it and the excitement that we had,” Roberts said. “Going into our scrimmages throughout the week … we just felt like were (riding high) because Perfect Game had us ranked number-18.”

That answers that. It certainly appears this year’s seniors on the Desert Oasis baseball team have positioned themselves to end their high school experiences on a super high note. Roberts said winning an NIAA 4A state championship would be the topper and he feels like all the pieces are in place for that to become a reality.

“It’s good to have the veteran core coming back,” Roberts said. “We have a lot of the players that were there last year to help the younger kids that didn’t get a chance to play last year. We learned a lot and there were definitely things we needed to improve on. …

“We do feed off each other,” he added. “There’s a lot of energy out there; we all know what we’re capable of and what others are capable of. So, we just go out there and take care of business.”

So, it is true after all: Teamwork can make the dream work, with just the right amount of effort ...