Highlands Ranch’s Ayden Wells is having the kind of week the Falcons may look back on and point to the kickstart of something special this spring.

The senior infielder hit a 3-run home run to fuel his team’s 5-3 win over 5A No. 3 Castle View on Monday. Then on Wednesday, he followed it up with his third bomb of the season in an eight-inning, 3-2 win over No. 21 Rock Canyon.

Now just 2 ½ weeks until the end of the regular season, those wins have the Falcons off the 32-team CHSAA postseason bubble, currently at No. 25.

In this week’s look-in on big-school baseball, and with 5A and 4A regionals just round the corner, slated for May 16-17, we’ll dive into a few dangerous teams lurking outside the top 10.

Class 5A

No. 25 Highlands Ranch Falcons (8-8)

What makes them dangerous: The Falcons are just .500, but they’re not playing like it. As they’ve shown all season long, and namedly in their win against third-ranked Castle View this week, they can play with anybody in the state.

Promising signs: Wells’ .449 batting average in 2025 is the best of his high school career. And if he can keep his power surge up, it props up an offense that has been up and down this spring.

Much of their fate, though, leans on their top two pitchers. Jackson Tuttle has a 3.74 ERA in a team-most 33 innings pitched. Thomas Healy has a 1.93 mark in 25 1/3.

In Monday’s win over the Sabercats, Tuttle held a prolific offense in check, allowing three runs in seven sharp innings. Then on Wednesday, Healy went a career-most eight innings, allowing just two runs in win in extras against Rock Canyon.

No. 13 Legacy Lightning (11-4)

What makes them dangerous: Their offense, led by center fielder Ethan Sanchez, is terrific, and their pitching by committee has worked well this spring.

Promising signs: As he showed in a 3-2 win over No. 20 Fairview on Wednesday, Sanchez is a difference-maker wherever he’s at. Defensively, he robbed at least one RBI away from Knights catcher Jack Espiritu-Niswonger with a full-extension, diving catch in center field. An inning later, he drove in his 27th run of the season, third-most in the classification.

The Lightning have outscored teams by 102 runs (127-25) during their 10-game winning streak.

No. 14 Chaparral Wolverines (10-6)

What makes them dangerous: Beckett Bacon not only is one of the best names in baseball this season, he’s been one of the best pitchers in the state, too.

Promising signs: The junior ace is 5-0 with a 0.55 ERA in 38 1/3 innings. In his eight appearances on the mound this season, the Wolverines are 7-1.

In a 3-1 win over Rock Canyon on Saturday, he allowed one run in seven strong innings and didn’t walk a batter in a third straight appearance. This season, he has 47 strikeouts to just two free passes.

Class 4A

No. 18 Holy Family Tigers (9-6)

What makes them dangerous: Sure, the Tigers graduated a lot of talent from last year’s 4A state title run, including their two standout pitchers. But they brought back some players with championship pedigree, too.

And if they’re two blowout wins this week is a sign of things to come, they’re a team nobody will want to see in the postseason.

Promising signs: They beat 5A No. 45 Horizon and 4A No. 23 Silver Creek by an identical score of 13-4 to start the week. In those games, 2024 CHSAA all-state honorable mention outfielder Logan Seifarth went 6 of 9 from the plate with five RBIs.

Their offense, as a whole, has scored 10 or more runs in three of its last four. The outlier? A 9-2 loss against 5A Broomfield and future BYU pitcher Ethan Zufall on April 16.

No. 20 Green Mountain Rams (10-4-1)

What makes them dangerous: In part because of senior pitcher Simon Lunsford’s continued dominance on the mound, the Rams have been red-hot over the past 2 ½ weeks, with seven wins in eight games.

Promising signs: After falling 8-4 to No. 40 Dakota Ridge on Monday — rankings-wise, their worst loss of the season — the Rams bounced back with a one-hitter from Lunsford against 3A No. 40 D’Evelyn On Tuesday. Lunsford is 5-1 with a 1.04 ERA and 60 strikeouts in 33 2/3 innings this spring.

No. 25 Canon City Tigers (9-6)

What makes them dangerous: No player in their lineup has more than 11 RBIs. Meanwhile, their top two pitchers (by innings) have decent, but not top-tier ERAs, with both somewhere in the 2s.

Balance is the key for the Tigers, and that’s proven to keep them in every game this season. Their biggest margin of defeat this spring was in a 7-3 loss to No. 22 Pueblo South at the start of the month. Two of their other losses came in extras, including a 10-inning, 6-4 loss to No. 2 Pueblo County on March 27. They fell by a single run in two-game splits against both No. 10 Summit and No. 30 Widefield.

Promising signs: Perhaps taking some lessons away from those narrow losses earlier in the season, the Tigers have put together their biggest winning streak of the season, currently at four games.

They beat Summit, 13-3, in the second game of their doubleheader on April 12. A two-game sweep of No. 56 Mesa Ridge last week was then followed by a 15-1 win over 5A No. 62 Palmer on Tuesday.

Sophomore Rocco Montoya has guided the way, with hits in his past four games, and wins in each of his last three appearances on the mound. This spring, Montoya is batting .389 and has a 2.24 ERA in a team-most 34 1/3 innings.