Kolton O’Connor is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Cactus Shadows for AZPreps365.com

For 12 seniors on the Cactus Shadows baseball team, their high school career is ending, but the other 12 players are looking to keep building on a great season.

With the season winding down, that bittersweet senior night is approaching.

“As we get to that last home game of the season, I think it starts sinking in with some of my seniors that this is my last game on this field,” said Gaetano Gianni, head coach for Cactus Shadows.

Cactus Shadows is having a tremendous year, at 4-1 in the region and 11-2 overall. The optimism is high among the seniors on this year’s team.

“We’re definitely a little bit nervous, but we are also excited for the opportunity to win in the playoffs and hopefully get it done,” Falcons senior Dallas Dunn said.

For Dunn, his senior season has been about spending time and playing the game he loves with friends that he has known since they first started playing baseball.

“Having the last year with my teammates, who I have been with since Little League, has been fun,” said Dunn.

While the current leaders of the team will play their last game sometime this spring, new leaders will hopefully emerge and continue to set the standard for Cactus Shadows baseball.

“These 12 kids who are getting this good experience this year will hopefully lead the team next year,” said Gianni.

Going into next year, Gianni said the big question will be if the kids on junior varsity can handle that varsity competition.

“The speed of the game is probably the biggest thing, kids on varsity are faster, they hit the ball harder, throw harder, the game itself is just faster, some of our kids who don’t see that level are over-matched when they get to varsity, so sometimes it takes them more time to develop,” said Gianni.

Owen Konerko, a sophomore at Cactus Shadows and son of former White Sox player Paul Konerko, said getting used to the varsity schedule has been the hardest part.

“Last year, as a freshman, I only played 18 games, and now I have already played 21, and we’re not even into playoffs yet,” said Konerko.

Konerko said he is confident the current juniors on varsity, as well as the juniors on JV, can step up and excel for the team next year.

“I think the juniors this year will be really good leaders because they’re just going to continue to keep getting better,” said Konerko.

As the season comes to an end, it is important to start looking forward to next season. Cactus Shadows is confident they have its next crop of leaders ready to carry the torch.