Falcons move up to 4th in state
by Jason Stone

CCUSD – It might not be first in its region, but the Cactus Shadows baseball team found itself ranked fourth in the state entering this week’s play. The Falcons lost a close one to Sunnyslope last week, but its two wins over Bradshaw Mountain vaulted Cactus Shadows (9‑9) to fourth in this week’s 4A‑Division II power point rankings. “We’ve won five of the last seven, and if you look at the rankings three of the top five teams are in our region,” Cactus Shadows coach Tom Scala said about the Wells Fargo 2 Region, which features No. 2 Notre Dame and No. 5 Sunnyslope in addition to Cactus Shadows in the top five. “There is no doubt this is the best region in the state.” The Falcons had a chance to gain ground on first‑place Notre Dame last week, but fell 5‑3 at Sunnyslope April 7 after taking two games from Bradshaw Mountain earlier in the week. “We were down 2‑0 in the first inning, and we battled them the rest of the way,” Scala said. “We just couldn’t get over the top. We had six hits, but they were all spread out.”