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2025 Cactus Classic
Peoria, Arizona
May 2-3
I-57’s Nic Perkins hits against BeHappy’s Brian Therkildsen.
Cactus Classic Team List
Cactus Classic Video and Article Links
Cactus Classic Bracket and Results link
Cactus Classic Picture Album link
Cactus Classic Archived Games link
I-57 Roofing vs F1’s condensed game link
BeHappy vs Cheap Suits condensed game link
F1s vs CutThroatSports condensed game link
DTS/MAJ vs I-57 Roofing condensed game link
Friday Night Recap
The Pioneer park had 6 – 325 foot fields.
The best game of the night was DTS/MAJ’s 8th inning win over Stars.
The annual Cactus Classic has been held at many different parks over the years. This year it was held at the Pioneer Park in Peoria, Arizona just outside of Phoenix and it featured 13 teams from 5 different states with 6 of the teams being from Conference USSSA. The fences were 325 feet and they used the Dudley Hardcore ball on some rock hard dirt/clay infields. The tournament began at 4 PM Pacific time on Friday and ended Saturday night under the lights. The weather was perfect in the mornings and evenings but the dry heat did get up to 90 degrees on Saturday afternoon. On Friday in the 5 “play in” games CutThroat/EliteSec/Soares/Coursey (CA-B) beat PURE/WICKED SPORTS (CA-B) 20-13. DTS/MAJ/PROTON (AZ-B), Cholo’s ‘B’ team, came from behind to beat Stars (CO-B) 32-24 in extra innings. BeHappy/Proton/Standard (AZ-A) trailing SNW/IMPACT/MYAZLAWYERS (AZ-C) 10-9 going into the top of the 5th scored 13 runs and then backed that up with 12 more in the top of the 6th to pull off a 34-18 run rule comeback. BeHappy’s Orlando Cano and Danny Higa were each 5-6 and Jagger Harjo was 5-5 with 4 HR and 11 RBI in the win. The Payeload/Famous/VIVID (AZ-A) team, formerly named Cheyenne, beat 915 Kingdom (TX-C) 36-12 as Drew Rogers and Tanner Gilmore each went 5-5. And in a good battle between Arizona non-conference ‘B’ teams Standard Plumbing/ GHPC beat Classy / NVH / Proton 30-29 in the bottom of the 7th inning on an Alfred Taitano two out bases loaded single after being down double digits in the 6th.
Standard Plumbings Alfred Taitano hits a 2 out bases loaded single to beat Classy.
The “Round of 8” was also played on Friday night under the lights. #1 seed I-57 Roofing/AXE/SHIRTSandLOGOS/SA played a feisty DTS/MAJ team. The game was tied at 9-9 going into the bottom of the 3rd when I-57 scored 15 runs. But DTS/MAJ put up 20 runs in the top of the 4th to take the lead 29-24. I-57 answered again with 14 in the bottom of the 4th and then with both teams out of home runs in the 4th, I-57 got an unassisted double play by 1st baseman Nic Perkins and a ricochet off of relief pitcher Johnny Elkins for an out to hold DTS/MAJ to just 2 runs in the last 3 innings winning 44-31. Nic Perkins was 6-6 and Christian Glisson, David Yoder, and Adam Harrington were all 5-6 in the win.
I-57 picked up Mike “Nino” Echeverria for the rest of the season.
Over on field #3 Payeload (Cheyenne) led BeHappy 31-25 going into the bottom of the 7th and BeHappy had used all 12 of their home runs. But BeHappy got 8 consecutive singles (4) and walks (4) and won 32-31 on a Jagger Harjo bases clearing double. Harjo was 5-6 with 5 RBI in the game and hit for the cycle, Danny Higa was 5-6, and Orlando Cano and Brian Therkildsen each drove in 7 runs.
BeHappy’s Jagger Harjo hits a 3 run double down the right field line to beat Payeload.
Cheap Suits /REPUBLIC REALTY /ESP (CA-A) the #2 seed broke open a 19-9 lead over Standard Plumbing by scoring 15 runs in the top of the 4th to win by the 20 run rule 34-13. Robert Banks was 5-5 in the win and Fred Heiser hit 4 HR and drove in 9 runs. And in the nightcap F1’s scored 17 runs in the top of the 3rd taking advantage of multiple CutThroatSports infield errors to go up 20-6 and after CutThroat avoided the run rule the game went 7 innings with F1’s winning 32-19. Ryan Garibay and Brandon LeBlanc were each 5-5 in the win.
Sal Rivas Jr. hits a bomb for F1’s against CutThroatSports Friday night.
Final 4 Recap
I-57’s Jordan Spaulding gets drilled by a line drive while on 2nd base.
The semifinals began at 9:30 AM Saturday morning in perfect weather. F1’s shut out I-57 in the top of the 1st inning when Jordan Spaulding got hit off the 2nd base bag by a line drive to end the inning. F1’s then came in and scored 7 runs but used up 5 of their 14 homers to do it. I-57 then showed their offensive prowess scoring 17 in the top of the 2nd, 13 in the top of the 3rd, and 11 in the top of the 4th to take a 41-17 lead and finished off F1’s 47-28 in 5 innings. And that included I-57 hitting 3 homers for outs in the top of the 5th. I-57 pitcher Mitch Carriger was 6-6 with 2 HR and 10 RBI in the victory. In the other semifinal BeHappy got a no out grand slam from Blake Lively to start their game against Cheap Suits. In the top of the 2nd BeHappy got a 2 out 3 run triple from Drew Stewart and a bunch of two out goodies to go up 18-4. In the top of the 4th BeHappy added 10 more runs to go up 30-8 but Cheap Suits avoided the run rule in the bottom of the 4th, 5th, and 6th to make it a 7 inning game but never could fully catch up, and BeHappy advanced to the winner’s final 37-29. Blake Lively went 6-6 and hit for the cycle in the win. Brent McClure was 5-5 and hit for the cycle for Cheap Suits in the loss.
Demario Boyd just scores in front of Wager’s tag attempt in the semifinals.
Winner’s Final Recap
I-57’s Adam Harrington hits in the winner’s final against BeHappy.
The winner’s final was all I-57. They out hit, out defended, and out pitched BeHappy as the temperature approached 90 degrees. I-57 led 14-1 going into the top of the 3rd where they scored 14 runs going up 22-1 on another Nic Perkins 2 out bomb! I-57 won in 4 innings 30-6 out hitting BeHappy 27-7 and out homering them 7-2. I-57 was led by David Yoder who was 4-4 and Nic Perkins 4-4, 3 HR, 9 RBI. And yes Perkins got another unassisted double play at 1st base in this game.
I-57 1st baseman Nick Perkins celebrates another unassisted double play.
Loser’s Bracket Recap
Levi Cheatwood hits for F’1s in the 4th place game vs Cheap Suits pitcher Billy Malovrh.
The losers bracket played out all day on Saturday. In the top half of the losers bracket CutThroatSports beat SNW 31-30 and DTS/MAJ 35-7 to finish tied for 5th after Cheap Suits dropped down and sent them home 31-28. In the bottom half of the losers bracket Payeload knocked off Pure/Wicked Sports 31-10 and Stars 29-10 before F1’s dropped down and sent them home 29-12. In the 4th place game late Saturday afternoon in the heat Cheap Suits trailing F1’s 20-13 going into the top of the 6th, scored 12 runs and won 28-24 as Demario Boyd led the way 5-5 with 4 HR and 8 RBI and Brandon Traylor was 5-5. In the loser’s final early evening Saturday Cheap Suits got their revenge on BeHappy in a game that featured multiple grand slams. BeHappy went up 11-4 in the bottom of the 1st inning. Cheap Suits grabbed a 13-12 lead in the top of the 4th on a 3 run homer by Boyd and scored 13 runs in the inning to take a 20-12 lead. In the bottom of the 4th BeHappy’s Mike Gibson hit a grand slam to bring them to within 20-17. In the top of the 6th Boyd struck again with a grand slam to put Cheap Suits up 32-19, Brandon Traylor added a grand slam in the top of the 7th, and Nic Guillen used Cheap Suits last homer to go up 39-29 and they ended up winning 39-30 out homering BeHappy 12-9. Demario “Mac Rio” Boyd was 5-6 with 4 HR and 11 RBI in the game as Adrian Ramos, Brandon Traylor, Carlos Abrigo, Billy Malovrh, and Brent McClure were all on base 5-6 as well in the win.
Championship Recap
Arizona’s own Jordan Spaulding lines a homer down the line in the championship.
The Championship game with the field 4 hours behind schedule was played in beautiful weather. An exhausted, dehydrated, and injured Cheap Suits team somehow reached down deep and led I-57 Roofing 23-2 going into the bottom of the 3rd after getting I-57 to put up one of their only zeroes of the tournament on a double play in the bottom of the 2nd. Mid game however, a day with almost no wind turned into the wind blowing across the diamond from left to right with gusts up to 18 mph. And with the game looking like a Cheap Suits runaway to force the “if” game, I-57 methodically scored 16 in the bottom of the 3rd, 17 on 3 in the bottom of the 4th, and on the strength of a David Yoder grand slam in the bottom of the 5th scored 11 more runs to leave Cheap Suits on the field 46-31. It was I-57’s first every Conference tournament win. The entire I-57 team was on base 50-62 in the game, they hit 14 HR, and 7 doubles in 5 at bats as a team. Christian Glisson drove in 8 runs.
The tournament was well run with solid umpiring. The hard infields made for some tough fielding by the infielders and that second hop hitting the base lines often was a bad hop. It made capable infielders like Marcus Yoder, Dante Broome, Mike Nino, Danny Higa, and many others look very human. The Hardcore ball was way too much ball for the fields. Most every team used their home run limit early in the game or would have used it if it hadn’t been a run rule. I-57 scored 8.36 runs per at bat which equates to 58 runs per 7 innings and the other teams weren’t far behind. The scoring this year (because of the ball choices) is at an all time high. To fix this, the conference should use the Hot Dot on 300 foot fields. This years good Pro-M on the 325 foot fields and the Smoky. And use the Hardcore or Stadium ball on baseball fields.
Conference USSSA is off for Mother’s Day weekend, THANKS STRO! Conference will return with two tournaments on May 16-18, the Golden State Major in Palm Springs, California and the Northeast Shootout Major in Branford, Connecticut.
Long Bomber of the Week!
The Long Bomber of the Week is Christian Glisson from I-57 Roofing.
Cactus Classic Results and Awards
MVP – Nic Perkins (19-21, .905, 7 HR, 24 RBI) and the defense at 1st base.
Defensive MVP – I-57 pitcher Mitch Carriger
Offensive MVP – Cheap Suits Demario Boyd (25-33 .758, 15 HR, 37 RBI)
Team by Team Notes
1st Place – I-57 Roofing/AXE/SHIRTSandLOGOS/SA
IL-AA Record 4-0
I-57 Roofing wins their first Conference event ever. Even when down double digits they “played the game”, let the game come to them, conserved home runs, and showed that they were the best team at the tournament even though they were missing Zane Migues, Sean Keeney, and Orlando Olivera. They picked up Mike Nino for the rest of the season and now lead ‘AA’ in points and are just a tenth of a point behind Westpoint in the computer rankings for 5th overall. They had to move David Yoder over to center field and Jordan Spaulding to DH after Spaulding was hit by that line drive early in their second game. Perkins and David Yoder were over .900 on base. Glisson, Elkins, and Spaulding were over .800. And the rest of the team was close to or over .700 on base. They averaged 8.36 runs per at bat which is 58 runs per 7 innings.
2nd Place – Cheap Suits/REPUBLIC REALTY/ESP
CA-A Record 4-2
Cheap Suits gutted out a 2nd place finish after playing in the heat all day Saturday. They had players cramping, Abrigo hurt his back on a swing but kept on playing, and other players were simply exhausted from the heat and long games. Boyd continues to be the RBI machine while Cayton and Traylor have some big games as well. Abrigo, Boyd, Guillen, Heiser, Malovrh, McClure, Ramos, and Traylor were all over .700 on base. Malovrh and Josh Jones did the pitching. The outfield with Banks, Guillen, and Ramos when healthy have some of the best range in the game.
3rd Place – BeHappy/Proton/Standard
AZ-A Record 3-2
BeHappy finished 3rd playing on their home fields in Arizona. Matt Webb’s team picked up Brian Therkildsen to pitch and he also had an .846 on base percentage for the weekend. The offense was led by 3 hitter Jagger Harjo who had that 3 run walk off triple against Payeload and was .833, 7 HR, and 21 RBI on the weekend. Mike Gibson led the team in HR with 8 and Orlando Cano led in RBI with 22. A solid team with a solid finish that will look to push for tournament championships at the Golden State Major and Utah Dual.
BeHappy pitcher Brian Therkildsen took a beating but kept on ticking all the way to 2nd place.
4th Place – F1s/DS/Proton/Prime/Trillstar
TX-TBD Record 2-2
F1’s had some nice wins over CutThroat and Payeload and went 7 innings with I-57 and Cheap Suits. A good weekend. They played without Steve Whaley. I was impressed by the line drive hitting of lead off hitter and middle man Isaac Aleman. Kenneth Henderson led the team with a .818 on base percentage, Emilio Lovato in home runs with 7, and Sal Rivas and Lovato each drove in 18 runs. Steve Myers and Hendo did the pitching.
F1’s picked up former I-57 pitcher Steve Myers.
Faces in the Crowd / More Pictures
Cheyenne changed their name to Payeload but they ended up tied for 5th.
Coach Sanchez has another young ‘B’ team out of Colorado, Stars.
The Dudley Pro M Hardcore ball was so good it reduced the 325 foot fields and made them play like 290 foot fields with huge scores, long games, and quite frankly it wore out many of the outfielders and pitchers.
Umpires for the Championship were Levi Lynch and Darrell Rowe.
A new way to run the bases?
You couldn’t see it on the livestream but the fields had a huge warning track.
