No. 1 Catalina Foothills beat No. 8 Cactus Shadows 7-5 Monday to advance to the third round of the 5A state playoffs to be played Thursday night at Tempe Diablo Stadium. Cactus Shadows is still alive and the Falcons will move over to the Elimination Bracket where the Falcons will face No. 5 Chaparral after No. 4 Horizon beat the Firebirds 18-11.

Cactus Shadows took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning after the Falcons loaded the bases with one out on a single from Brett McLuhan and walks from Derek Schaefer and Carter Brown. Jaden Keenan induced an infield fly for the second out but Dillon Roberts drew a walk to score McLuhan. Keenan ended the threat with a strikeout.

Ganon Dwyer led off the bottom of the second with a single and it looked like Wyatt Schottel would escape any kind of rally after picking up two quick outs but Branden Franz singled to move Dwyer to second base where he scored on an errant pickoff attempt at first base to tie the game up at 1-1.

The Falcons loaded the bases with one out again in the top of the third on singles from Brown and Roberts and a walk to Colin Masco. Bryce Weege took the mound in relief and Luke Jenson knocked in Brown to put Cactus Shadows up 2-1. Weege induced a double play to end the inning.

Lucas Polec walked to start things off in the bottom of the third inning and Troy Sanders drew a walk to put two on for Catalina Foothills. Schottel picked up a strikeout and a pop fly for two outs but Dwyer hit a 3-run home run to put the team up 4-2.

Cactus Shadows came right back with a single from McLuhan to start another rally in the top of the fourth and then Antonio Gianni walked to put two on. McLuhan advanced to third base on a fielder’s choice and Schaefer reached first to keep two runners on. An infield error on a grounder from Brown scored McLuhan to cut the lead down to 4-3 and then Josh Valentine reached on an error and Brown scored on the play to tie the game up 4-4. Roberts picked up an RBI to score Valentine and Cactus Shadows led 5-4.

That score held up until the bottom of the fifth where Sanders walked, Anthony Diaz singled and Kincaid Bergthold singled to score Sanders. Nate Shoemaker brought in two runs one out later and Catalina Foothills went back up 7-5.

Dwyer picked up the win after pitching the last four innings and he collected four strikeouts. He went 2-3 at the plate with a home run and three RBI. Diaz went 3-4 and Franz went 3-3. For Cactus Shadows, Tyler Wojciechowski and Patrick Geary also saw action on the mound. McLuhan went 2-3, and Roberts went 2-2 with two RBI.

Catalina Foothills will face Horizon at 6:30 p.m. Thursday night. The winner moves over to the semifinal round slated for May 10 at HoHoKam Stadium. The loser will face the winner of Chaparral and Cactus Shadows on May 8 at Diablo Stadium. The single-game championship is scheduled for May 16 at Diablo Stadium.

Wyatt Schottel (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)