Sameer Malla is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover North Canyon High School for AZPreps365.com

PHOENIX – “The cold did not bother Cody anyways.” That paraphrased line from the hit Disney movie Frozen might be used to describe North Canyon hurler Cody Skartveit, who made his first start of the season for the Rattlers on Friday in frigid—at least for the desert—conditions. The junior righty struck out 10 Central batters in only five innings of work and propelled his Rattlers to a 6-2 home opening win.

A rain delay caused the first pitch to be shifted 15 minutes after the original start time. The early afternoon shower resulted in chillier, windier weather settling in midway through the game. Many fans brought jackets and blankets to warm themselves as the game progressed.

The weather did not concern the right-handed Skartveit in the least bit, as he motored through the Bobcats lineup with his calling card: the heater. “I really like my fastball,” Skartveit said. “The speed is definitely up there and it’s hard for my opponents to catch up to it.”

Skartveit was untroubled by the rain delay, striking out five Bobcat hitters in the first two innings. He would also finish strong, facing the minimum three batters with two strikeouts in the fifth inning.

“I thought I did really, really well,” said Skartveit, an ice bag on his throwing elbow after the game. “I got ten strikeouts in 15 outs. Infield and outfield did a really good job behind me, and my catcher blocked a lot of balls for me, making a lot of my strikeouts. He also helped me frame pitches, as he had a very, very confident mindset behind the plate.”

Central’s coach, Randy Aguiar, had high praise for Skartveit.

“We just ran across a tough pitcher today,” Aguiar said. “Their pitcher was on his game. My guys battled - we ran out of time unfortunately and that's baseball. Stuff bounces your way, sometimes that doesn't. I’m quite proud of the kids, as they fought today.”

Skartveit was not perfect on the mound, as he allowed five walks, a triple and two runs during his outing. “Not all of my mechanics were there,” Skartveit said.

North Canyon coach Jeff Fierro also noticed that Skartveit notably started behind the count more times than not on Friday.

“One of the things I would like to see Skartveit focus on is on first pitch strikes,” Fierro said. “We kind of struggled with that. Especially when we get to the bottom half of the order. I want our guys to just be able to go 7-8-9 without having to struggle and we kind of hand some struggles with that. But we are able to work out of it, because we have a good defense behind us.”

The game was hardly a one-man show as Skartveit's teammate, Omar Martinez, came up huge at the plate for the second consecutive game for North Canyon. In the fourth inning the sophomore first baseman hit a bases-clearing double that drove in two insurance runs – extending a 3-2 lead into a comfortable 5-2 margin. In Tuesday's 23-1 win versus Metro Tech, Martinez had smoked a two-run bomb.

“Omar is kind of the catalyst for everything that we’ve been doing the last couple of games,” Fierro said. “He had two big hits today, so I think overall we did pretty well with the bat.”

The Rattlers (2-1) travel to Glendale to face the Cardinals on Tuesday, at 4 p.m. The Glendale Cardinals (3-1) are coming off a 28-8 win against the Cortez Colts on Friday, when they scored 18 runs in the third inning alone.

Central (0-2) will return home on for its next game against the Maryvale Panthers (1-2) on Friday at 3:45 p.m. The Panthers were shut out by the Skyline Coyotes on Friday, 12-0 at home.