That's disappointing to hear. Obviously from this far away I would not know why. Baseball thrives in Arizona, but this is the perfect place for it to thrive.
That said, I do have a theory:
As travel teams have become the norm, more than more players have been excluded sooner or sooner. As a result, many of them move on to other sports or other activities and forget baseball altogether.
At least some of these players might have developed into varsity starters and many of them valuable teammates. At a minimum, they would have increased the numbers and filled out freshmen and jv teams.
Unfortunately, what has developed in some places is the situation you describe. It clearly is important to keep baseball as fun for as many players as possible for as long as possible.