2026 Cactus Classic tournament report!

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2026 Cactus Classic

Peoria, Arizona

May 29-30

Can anyone stop Resmondo this year?

Cactus Classic Team List

Video and Article Links

Cactus Classic Results & Bracket Link

2026 Cactus Classic Picture Album

YouTube Channel (Highlights and Condensed Game Videos)

BallClubz Boxscores link

BallClubz Team Stat Reports link

Archived Livestream Games Link

USSSA Stats Link

Fishers vs Chino Tropics condensed game link

BeHappy vs MEI Rigging condensed game link

Fishers vs BeHappy condensed game link

Resmondo vs GemGlove condensed game link

R1 vs Resmondo condensed game link

Combat MFG vs Desert Heat condensed game link (coming Sunday)

BeHappy vs Resmondo condensed game link

BeHappy vs Fishers condensed game link

BeHappy vs Resmondo Championship condensed game link (coming Friday)

Women’s Winner’s Final – SD Lighting vs Derby Girls condensed game link (coming Saturday)

Friday Night Recap

The 2026 Conference season headed out west for the annual Cactus Classic. This was a double elimination tournament that started on Friday and ended Saturday with 14 teams from 8 different states. The action began at 4 PM Pacific time at the Pioneer Sports Park on their 325 foot fields and they used the Dudley Pro-M “China” ball. The infields were very hard dirt which made for a number of bad hops but overall the tournament ran very smoothly and the games were high scoring “smash mouth” softball.

“Play In” Games:

At 4 PM Chino Tropics (AZ-C) upset the Apex/CBB Athletics (CO-B) conference team 34-33 in the 10th inning! Winning on a Craig Reynolds bases loaded single. For Chino, third baseman Dylan Elgin was 7-7 on base and 3 hitter Ethan Valenzuela was 5-7 with 2 HR and 7 RBI. There were 90 hits in this game!

R1/WWS/JJ sports (CO-B) beat SOB’S/Horton Air/G&S Auto/Drip (AZ-C) 21-20 getting 3 straight outs in the bottom of the 7th.

Fishers/All Hustle/Leacock Sports (PA-B) scored at least 2 runs in every inning and beat DGens/BettorDay (NV-C) 24-17 without having to hit in the bottom of the 7th. Fisher’s out homered DGens 6 to 1 as Daniel Stoltzfus and Levi Stoltzfus at the bottom of the order were a combined 8-8 on base with 7 runs scored.

Combat MFG (OK-B) got off to a nice start beating BAT TO THE BONE (CA-C) 36-23 after trailing 17-14 going into the 5th inning. They scored the 36 runs on just 6 home runs and were led by leadoff hitter Justin Vermillion who was 6-6 on base with 5 runs scored and middle infielder Gary Burley who was 6-6 on base as well.

At 5:45 PM MEI Rigging / Rowley White / Figa (AZ-C) upset Desert Heat Auto (AZ-B) 21-12 over on field #4.

And GemGlove/Anarchy/T21/D2/BMasters (UT-B) held on to win 25-24 over My AZ Lawyers/Impact/Mason Pro (AZ-B) when the GemGlove center fielder made a spectacular leaping catch on the fence in left center in the top of the 7th for the final out.

Quarterfinals:

In the quarterfinals Friday night an upset minded MEI Rigging team scored 6 on 0 homers in the bottom of the 1st inning against BeHappy/StandardPlumbing (AZ-AA) who got a bye and was the #2 seed in the tournament. But BeHappy got a grand slam from Richard Rollice in the top of the 3rd, Danny Higa turned a key double play in the bottom of the 3rd, and MEI left the bases loaded in the bottom of the 4th. That left the door open for a BeHappy 24-8 run rule win as pitcher Kyle Johnson shut down MEI in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th innings. Leadoff hitter Daontre Porter, power hitter Andrew Hall, and center fielder Richard Rollice were all 4-4 hitting in the game.

Fishers scored 10 on 4 in the top of the 3rd inning hitting 2 two run homers and 2 three run homers against Chino Tropics. Fishers added 8 in the 4th and 10 in the 5th to win by the mercy rule 32-7, out homering Chino 7-5. Zac Perkins, Raymond Stoltzfus, and Daniel Stoltzfus were all on base 5-5 as the team had 10 doubles and 3 triples to go with those 7 home runs.

R1 (Roll One) scored 14 in the bottom of the 2nd and 7 in the bottom of the 3rd to beat Combat MFG 22-20 without having to bat in the bottom of the 7th to advance to the semifinals.

And #1 seed Resmondo-SIS-Stub Term-RDD-S&S-LLC- (FL-Major) after leading 14-10 over GemGlove in the 1st inning, scored 8 in the 2nd and 19 in the top of the 3rd to win by the 25 run mercy rule 41-14. Resmondo hit 12 of their allowed 16 home runs as Travis Clark, Everett Williams, Daniel Cayton, and Heath Barnes were all perfect on base in the game and Jeremy Yates went 4-5 with 3 HR and 11 RBI.

Final 4 Recap

Matt Brady homers for BeHappy in the semifinals.

Semifinals:

In the semifinals Friday evening as the lights came on, Fishers jumped out to a 7-2 lead on BeHappy after one inning. But BeHappy shut out Fishers in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th innings while scoring 16 runs in the bottom of the 4th themselves to take a 26-7 lead. BeHappy’s Matt Brady hit a grand slam in that big inning. Unfortunately, in the bottom of the 4th Fishers 3rd baseman Chris Fisher took a bad hop to the nose and broke his nose. He is doing ok with a lot of swelling and pain and we hope to see him back in the near future. The 2nd bounce when it hit the base line seemed to take a bad hop on these fields. Fishers extended the game in the top of the 5th with a grand slam from Luke Jess but BeHappy scored 5 on 2 to win by the run rule 31-14 when Trey Porter hit a 3 run homer. Porter was 5-5 in the game and Danny Higa, Matt Brady, and Joel Sanchez were all 4-4 in the win.

In the other semifinal Resmondo scored 18 on 3 in the bottom of the 1st and 22 on 8 in the bottom of the 2nd to beat R1 40-15 in 2.5 innings. Resmondo was 40-46 .870 on base in the game as a team with 17 extra base hits. Marshburn, Jones, Yates, Matusik, Latimore, and Lewis were all perfect on base in the game.

Kyle Pearson hits a 3 run homer in the semifinals Friday night.

Winner’s Final Recap

KJ snaps off a hot grounder.

The winner’s final was played just before noon on Saturday in near perfect weather between the top two teams in the tournament, BeHappy (AZ-AA) and Resmondo who is the #1 team in the country. Both teams scored just 4 runs in the 1st inning trying to “play the game” and preserve home runs. In the top of the 2nd BeHappy showed that they came to play scoring 13 runs (11 after the 2nd out) to go up 17-4. In the top of the 3rd BeHappy added 7 more to go up 24-10 and Resmondo answered with 11 in the bottom of the 3rd inning on a Kyle Pearson grand slam, although BeHappy pitcher Kyle Johnson ended the Resmondo rally by making a nice play on a hard middle shot. In the top of the 4th Resmondo 1st baseman Kyle Pearson made a great play on a hot shot grounder but Resmondo came in to bat and left the bases loaded in the bottom of the 4th down 30-21. BeHappy did not take advantage and only scored 1 run on 1 homer in the top of the 5th. In the top of the 6th Resmondo pitcher Travis Clark got a swing and a miss, two popouts, and a strikeout looking to hold BeHappy to 2 runs and BeHappy went into the bottom of the 6th up 33-25. In the bottom of the 6th Resmondo took advantage of a number of BeHappy misplays and I actually counted 5 tough chances that the BeHappy defense had but didn’t make any of the plays. This led to a Cory Briggs 2 run homer to tie the game at 33, a Heath Barnes 2 run homer to take a 35-33 lead, and Tyler Marshburn and Bradley Jones added home runs and suddenly Resmondo had scored 24 runs and left BeHappy on the field by the 15 run rule 49-33! Kyle Pearson was 7 for 7 in the win and Bradley Jones and Cory Briggs each drove in 7 runs.

Bradley Jones hits a walk off homer to beat BeHappy capping a 24 run inning!

Loser’s Bracket Recap

Justin Watkins homers for Desert Heat in the loser’s bracket Saturday morning.

The loser’s bracket played out all day on Saturday with My AZ Lawyers beating Chino Tropics, MEI Rigging, and R1 to win the top half of the loser’s bracket. Desert Heat beat Combat MFG and GemGlove in the lower half before Fishers sent them home 39-21. In the 4th place game Fishers held My AZ Lawyers scoreless in the 4th, 5th, and 6th innings and came from a 12-7 early deficit to win 19-14, out homering My AZ Lawyers 5-3. In the loser’s bracket finals though it was all BeHappy as they got out to a 7-3 lead on Fishers after two innings but scored 18 on 4 home runs in the top of the 3rd as they wore out the left center field gap. BeHappy won in 4 innings 29-5 as Danny Higa, Matt Brady, Joel Sanchez, and Kyle Johnson were all perfect on base in the win.

Tre Porter and BeHappy takes down Fishers in the loser’s final.

Championship Recap

The Canadian Sensation – Steele Lewis hits a long home run in the championship.

In the championship early Saturday evening, BeHappy scored 6 on 2 in the top of the 1st. But the Resmondo offense, which has dominated all season, was just too much. Resmondo scored 10 on 3 in the 1st, 9 on 3 (Reckart grand slam) in the 2nd, 12 on 4 in the 3rd, and 11 on 4 in the 4th to end it by the 20 run rule 42-21. Tournament MVP Kyle Pearson was 5-5, Cory Briggs 5-5, and Heath Barnes 4-4 in the win as all but one player homered in the game. This was Resmondo’s 5th tournament win in 6 attempts this season. They now have a 28-5 record and they are dominating on all sized fields…

Jason Matusik makes a diving catch in the championship.

Long Bomber of the Week!

The Long Bomber of the Week is BeHappy’s Drew Hall. Also the Resmondo team started teeing off in that championship game with Steele Lewis, Kyle Pearson, Bradley Jones, Travis Clark, and Everett Williams all hitting some creatures. It was as if they were practicing for the Long Haul Tour.

Cactus Classic Results and Awards

MVP – Resmondo 1st baseman Kyle Pearson

Defensive MVP – Resmondo left fielder Steele Lewis

Offensive MVP – BeHappy OF/IF Richard Rollice

Team by Team Notes

1st Place – Resmondo-SIS-Stub Term-RDD-S&S-LLC-

FL-Major Record 4-0

Resmondo as a team had an .820 on base percentage which I believe is a record for a tournament on 325 foot fields. Barnes, Briggs, Cayton, Jones, Lewis, Mack, Marshburn, Pearson, Latimore, Reckart, and Williams were all .800 or over. Just think if they had used the Hardcore ball like they did in 2025 at this tournament? This Pro-M this year is plenty of ball for the main fields at the Smoky. Hopefully they use it. Can’t say much more about Resmondo. They dominated and are dominating the season. Their offense is setting records. Travis on the mound is shutting teams down in the 6th and 7th innings if the game gets that far. And the defense has had some streaks where they make all of the plays. Resmondo is off until the Chicago Major at the end of June but a lot of their players will be playing for Team USA at the Border Battle coming up in a couple weeks in Winesburg, Ohio.

Brad Reckart pitched a lot of the games.

2nd Place – BeHappy/StandardPlumbing

AZ-AA Record 3-2

BeHappy finished 2nd like they were supposed to but they did give Resmondo a run for their money in that winner’s final which was the “Game of the Week!” Matt Brady, Drew Hall, Kyle Johnson, Tre Porter, and Joel Sanchez were all .800 on base or higher for the weekend. If they could play more consistent on defense for a full 7 innings they will be right there with the other ‘AA’ teams this year.

3rd Place – Fishers/All Hustle/Leacock Sports

PA-B Record 4-2

Fishers did what they came from Pennsylvania to do, and that was play some B and C teams that they had never played before, which they did. And then take a shot at the big teams, which they did. Robert Holland and Zac Perkins were over .800 on base for the weekend.