Defending state champion Bulldogs enter postseason with different look

No one would have blamed Centennial softball coach Mike Livreri if he had handed out name tags at his team’s first practice.

Or first game. Or even 10th game, for that matter.

Months removed from the program’s second Class 4A state title, there were few recognizable faces around the diamond. Five freshmen and a handful of inexperienced underclassmen moved up to replace seven seniors.

And yet, the Bulldogs are back in a familiar spot — the Sunset Region playoffs.

The Bulldogs (19-11-1) are the Northwest League’s No. 4 seed and begin the Sunset playoffs Tuesday at Majestic Park by facing Southwest champion Durango (20-7) at 4 p.m. Both the Sunset and Sunrise Region tournaments begin Tuesday and run through Friday at Majestic.

The champions of each double-elimination region tourney advance to the state tournament on May 21-22 in Reno.

“It’s been a roller coaster, at times, a lot of ups and downs,” Livreri said.

Centennial has only two seniors, and at times the season has seen all five freshmen take to the infield, a far cry from last year’s state title game when the only non-senior in the infield was catcher Kylie Bartlett, now a junior and one of the elder statesmen on the team.

“We had a lot of strong leadership, a lot of experience last year,” Livreri said. “You can’t replace that overnight. It takes a while for the young girls to get accustomed to us and for us to get accustomed to them. The kids are good; they’re resilient. We like their energy.”

On top of that, the Bulldogs did most of their work in the Northwest on the arms of freshman pitcher Taylor Huntly and sophomore hurler Jessica Cooper. Cooper began the season on junior varsity.

“We’ve had to put in a lot more work this year,” junior outfielder Mikayla Djordjevic said. “The freshmen have really grown. They’re settling in more. Now it’s just a matter of putting everything together at once.”

The Bulldogs hope that time comes this week.

“We want to stick around and do what we can this year,” Livreri said. “We’ve shown that we can beat some good teams, so hopefully we get hot at the right time.”

In Tuesday’s other first-round games in the Sunset, it’s Northwest champion Legacy (25-3) vs. Desert Oasis (17-14) at 4 p.m., while Arbor View (17-7) plays Bonanza (19-9-1), and Clark (16-13) takes on Palo Verde (23-7) at 6 p.m.

In the Sunrise Region, Tuesday’s first-round games are: Southeast champion Green Valley (24-6) vs. Eldorado (15-13), and Northeast champion Las Vegas (20-8) vs. Foothill (16-12) at 4 p.m.; and Rancho (11-18) vs. Liberty (21-8), and Basic (18-5) vs. Valley (15-12) at 6 p.m.