Cactus
Shadows baseball claims first 4A state title
Cactus
Shadows baseball pulls out extra‑inning win
by
Jason Stone
CCUSD
– Ollie Goulder said it was a year late. But that only
made it sweeter.
Cactus
Shadows’ baseball team doesn’t like to do what people
expect. Those who thought the Falcons were supposed to
win the 4A state championship last year because of four
senior pitchers were wrong. And people who figured the
Falcons had no chance to compete on the state level this
year with those four players gone were wrong again.
But
for those who became one of the Falcons’ supporters who
started to believe when the team rallied from six runs
down to beat Notre Dame in the region championship series,
everything is all right.
Cactus
Shadows capped the greatest sports year in the school’s
history May 13 at Tempe Diablo Stadium as the Falcons
exploded for 10 first‑inning runs in a 13‑7
win over Arcadia in the 4A‑Division II state championship
game.
“Nobody
thought we could do this,” Goulder said. “Last year was
supposed to be our year. That’s what makes this even sweeter.
At the beginning of the year, I didn’t know who was even
going to be on the team.”
It
turns out coach Tom Scala put together a mix of players
that would impress any chemistry teacher. The big rally
over Notre Dame April 28 showed the team had some magic
to go with its talent. The Falcons ultimately beat Notre
Dame 2 games to 1 in the Wells Fargo 2 series, then swept
through four opponents impressively at state.
It
was the school’s second ever state baseball title, but
first at the 4A level. Cactus Shadows first won state
in 1999 as a 3A school. The Falcons reached the 4A Final
Four last season, but lost to Catalina Foothills 6‑1
in the semifinals.
This
year’s Falcons team got better as the season moved along,
and that held true at state. After the fifth‑seeded
Falcons needed extra innings to beat Palo Verde in the
first round, Cactus Shadows beat the first, third and
fourth seeds in succession by a combined score of 36‑14.
The
Falcons tripled up No. 4‑seed Desert View in the
quarterfinals at Papago Park, then used a three‑run
first‑inning against top‑seed Coronado to
spark a 14‑4 rout in the semifinals.
“Getting
those runs early was big because we didn’t do that all
season,” said Jerome Peńa, who pitched the Falcons to
two of the state wins, including the championship game
on three‑day’s rest. “It took us awhile to get it
going, but we did.”
In
the championship game on a mild night in Tempe, Cactus
Shadows tied a state championship game record with 11
hits in the first inning, which brought home 10 runs–the
fourth‑highest scoring inning in title‑game
history.
“These
kids are real confident and they came out and got it done,”
Scala said. “It’s unbelievable because nobody expected
it but us.”
Goulder,
Trask Switzenberg and Robbie Alexander are the only senior
starters that will be leaving the team next year. The
nucleus of Pena, sophomore Matt Summers and freshman Mike
Basco, among a handful of other underclass talent, is
expected back.
“This
was one of the youngest teams at state,” Scala said. “They
have experience now. But now we have to go out and defend
the title.”
The
Falcons already appeared prepared to play on the big stage
in big parks this year. The team arrived at Tempe Diablo
Stadium nearly two hours prior to the championship game.
“I
think it really relaxed us because we were able to see
the stadium and walk around the ballpark so we weren’t
in awe of the stadium when the game started,” Goulder
said.
Goulder,
who smacked a homer against Coronado in the semifinals,
nearly hit another in the championship game, but hit the
top of the wall during the first‑inning explosion.
Arcadia
chipped away at Cactus Shadows’ lead the rest of the way
and actually threatened to send the tying run to the plate
before Basco relieved Pena in the bottom of the seventh
and forced a game‑ending double play.
“Mike
Basco: Icewater in his veins,” Goulder said about the
freshman’s save.
Basco’s
clutch performance was only typical of the Falcons’ entire
season.
