Southern Arizona teams have claimed the Division III/3A Conference championships every year since 2015, which happens to be the year Empire head coach Shannon Woolridge won his first of three championships. Woolridge won again in 2017 and last year to go along with a runner-up finish in 2023. His top-ranked Ravens beat No. 5 Tanque Verde 1-0 in nine innings Friday night to send the program back to the final for the third year in a row to be played against No. 3 Yuma Catholic.

The Shamrocks beat No. 2 Show Low 9-2 in the other semifinal to set up the championship game with Empire, to be played Monday night at the Farrington Softball Stadium on the ASU campus at 8 p.m.

Empire (26-1) lost to Tanque Verde (26-5) on April 21, breaking a 39-game winning streak dating back to March 14, 2024, which set up an unfortunate rematch in the semifinal round instead of the state final. Still, the rematch did not disappoint.

Empire senior pitcher Kendall Freidinger (20-1) finished with 14 strikeouts in the win and Tanque Verde sophomore Claire Achilles (14-2) had 12 in the loss. Even with Friedinger’s dominance from the circle, the Hawks had several opportunities to win the game in regulation, including a bases loaded situation with two outs in the third inning and two runners on with one out in the sixth. Tanque Verde also had two runners on with two outs in the eighth but a sharp line drive from Emily Ryan went straight to Angelina Dehler at short.

The Ravens took advantage of a one-out walk issued to freshman Lainey Kroeger in the bottom of the eighth and then sophomore Gabrianna Brooks reached on a hard grounder to third base and an alert Kroeger took third base on the play. Senior Abby Zsitvay came up next and she took the ball to the right side which allowed Kroeger to come home on the play.

Friedinger, a Weber State commit, has 264 strikeouts so far this year and 837 in her career.