Canyon del Oro improved to 9-1 in power-ranking games after the Dorados beat Catalina Foothills 9-2 at home Wednesday. The Dorados came in ranked No. 3 in the 4A Conference and Catalina Foothills (4-2) started the day as the top-ranked team in the 5A Conference. Rankings are formatted daily from Tuesday through Friday until the final week of the regular season with the Play-In Tournament for 2A-6A slated for Wednesday, April 24.

Region standings have no play-off implications for the 4A, 5A and 6A Conferences but the top two region teams in 2A and 3A will earn a spot in the Play-In Tournament at the very least and the top two region teams in the 1A Conference will make the state playoffs. At this point, the Dorados and the Falcons are playing for a top-eight seed to avoid the play-in phase and a top-four seed, which could mean hosting the first two rounds of the state playoffs.

According to the playoff rules after the first round: “If a Southern Arizona school is hosting a Northern Arizona school, the game will take place at Tempe Diablo Stadium. If a Southern Arizona school is hosting a Phoenix Metro school or if the game features two Southern Arizona schools, the game will take place in the Tucson area.”

In the game on Wednesday, the Dorados scored six runs in the bottom of the third inning to take control of the game with the program sending 11 batters to the plate. Michael Jones knocked in Ernie Alvarez, Grant Young doubled in Chris Humphreys, Jones scored on an error and Tarrell Reid singled in Adrian Encinas to make it 4-0. The Falcons picked up two outs but Alvarez came up again and he singled in Maximus Hendrix and Peyton Carson to make it 6-0.

The Dorados added three more runs in the fourth with Hendrix bringing in Jones, Reid sacrificing Encinas in and then Alvarez was hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded to score Carson. Catalina Foothills scored a run in the sixth with Luke Burns coming in on a wild pitch and another in the seventh with Nate Shoemaker brining in Cooper Kruk.

Grant Young picked up the win with eight strikeouts in five innings and Sean Young finished the game for the Dorados. Jones went 3-4 with an RBI, Grant Young and Hendrix had two hits each, Reid had two RBI and Alvarez had three RBI. Ganon Dwyer got the start for the Falcons and Ari Schiller took over in the fourth. Paden Good and Shoemaker both went 2-4 and Kruk picked up a double.

Catalina Foothills travels to Ironwood Ridge (4-7) on Thursday for a 5A Southern Region game CDO hosts Flowing Wells (2-7) on Friday for a 4A Kino Region game.

Ganon Dwyer. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)