The Willow Canyon Wildcats will square off against the Cactus Shadows Falcons at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
It was a proper cat-fight when Willow Canyon challenged Paradise Honors on Wednesday. Willow Canyon put the hurt on Paradise Honors with a sharp 13-4 victory. The Wildcats might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won three games by eight runs or more this season.
Izzy Ray was incredible, going 3-for-4 with three runs, three RBI, and one triple. That's the most runs she has posted since back in April of 2024. Another player making a difference was Caylee Walding, who scored two runs and stole a base while getting on base in three of her five plate appearances.
Ray wasn't the only one working in the hit department: Willow Canyon kept the outfield on their toes and finished the game with 14 hits. Willow Canyon is 3-1 when they post 11 or more hits.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Cactus Shadows). They blew past Thunderbird 12-1 last Tuesday. The Falcons haven't had any issues with the Titans recently, as the game was their seventh consecutive win against them.
Molly Brown looked comfortable as she struck out 11 batters over four innings while giving up just one earned run off three hits (and not a single walk). She has been nothing but reliable on the mound: she hasn't given up more than two walks any time she's pitched this season.
On the hitting side, Bailey Fitzmaurice was a standout: she went 1-for-2 with one home run and four RBI. The team also got some help courtesy of Madi Handke, who went a perfect 2-for-2 with two runs, one triple, and one RBI.
Cactus Shadows pushed their record up to 3-4 with the victory, which was their sixth straight at home dating back to last season. Those victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.3 runs on average over those games. As for Willow Canyon, they are on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five matches. That's provided a nice bump to their 5-4-1 record this season.
Willow Canyon was able to grind out a solid win over Cactus Shadows in their previous meeting back in February of 2024, winning 10-7. Will Willow Canyon repeat their success, or does Cactus Shadows have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
