The Arizona high school championships were decided Monday night as the top two divisions, I and II, were decided. Here’s a report from each of the title games.

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Div. I – Sandra Day O’Connor 2, Mountain Ridge 0

Phoenix Sandra Day O’Connor (34-7) didn’t do it the easy way, starting off with a couple of losses early in the season, then having to go to through the Loser’s Bracket and winning four games—against Horizon, Mountain Pointe, Desert Vista and Xavier— just to make it to the Arizona Div. I softball championship Monday night.

And against Glendale Mountain Ridge (30-5), the top seed and FAB 50 ranked 14^th team in the nation, the Eagles only collected three hits against a team that had won 17 straight games heading into Monday’s action at Arizona State’s Farrington Stadium.

But O’Connor did just enough to capture its first softball state title Monday night winning 2-0 by utilizing stellar pitching and defense as sophomore pitcher Emma Vesely threw a complete game while freshman shortstop Grace Lyons, an Oklahoma commit, made one great player after another to keep Mountain Ridge off the bases.

Lyons saved at least two runs with a diving play on a two-out line drive up the middle with the bases loaded.

Vesely gave up four hits and six walks but four of those were by design to Alyssa DiCarlo, the senior All-State outfielder/shortstop signed with Georgia, who didn’t see one strike in her four plate appearances.

Junior lefty pitcher Giselle Juarez, who has committed to Fresno State, also only allowed three hits while striking out seven and, ironically, she had pitched a two-hitter with 11 strikeouts for a 2-0 win earlier in May.

The deciding factor of the game was two walks that the pitcher gave up to Steview McLemore who ended up sorcing in the second and seventh innings on two-out hits—a double by Jasmilia Cosay and an infield hit by Juystyce McClain, respectively.

While the hits were scarce, the defensive plays by the Eagles were numerous in addition to Lyon’s stellar play.

Cosay made some key stretches at first to help complete defensive plays and Savannah Avila made some key plays from her second base position, including a sweeping tag after fielding a ground ball to get a lead runner on her way to second.

Additionally, Stevie McLemore made a great catch running into the right centerfield gap and Kelsey Banales made three key catches in left field, including two of the final outs in the 7th.

Senior catcher Emilee Erickson, headed to BYU, called the entire game as she has all year and said after the victory: “”We talked about the importance of getting 21 outs and not celebrating or giving up in any way until the last out.”

“To us, this game was about beating our rival, nothing more. As a result, we didn’t feel the pressure of this being the big Championship Game that it was. Bottom line, we won State because we had the best team. Other teams had better individual players, but we had the best team and played as a team. Every starter and bench player contributed to this championship!”

More photos of the Div. I champs (click on the photos to see them larger with captions):

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Div. II – Cienega 9, Salpointe 2

Preceeding the Div. I game was the Div. II championship which saw Vail (Ariz.) Cienega (26-8) beat Tucson Salpointe (29-8) by a score of 9-2, also at Farrington Stadium.

Talk about having a team’s number.

It was the third win this year for the Bobcats over Salpointe and while the other games were much closer—3-2 in March and 3-1 in the playoff semis—this game was much different as Ciegna scored all the runs it would need by putting three runs on the board in the bottom of the first.

Senior outfielder Shelby Kennedy started the inning off with a walk and manufactured a run by herself as she stole second and third and then scored on a throwing error.

Taylor Lamber tripled to drive in two more runs that inning and that was all senior pitcher Kayla Green, who will play at New Mexico State, would need.

Tori Brown had an RBI double in the second and three more runs crossed the plate in the 4^th inning to put the game out of reach at 7-0.

It wasn’t the only comfortable win of the playoffs for the Bobcats—they outscored their opponents 60-11 in five games and the win gave Cienega its second state title under coach Eric Tatham.

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Note: last week, No. 6 seed Emire beat No. 1 seed Payson 6-3 to take the Div. III state title and No. 5 seed Superior beat No. 3 seed San Manuel 3-0 for the Div. IV championship.