Winning a softball state championship was easy as 1-2-3 for Heritage Academy.

The Heroes turned a vital double play Monday in defending the 2A title with a 6-0 win over No. 1 Mohave Accelerated Learning Center (MALC).

The twin killing came in the fifth inning after Heritage coach Steve LaDrigue internationally walked MALC's second and third hitter (Tanner Banks and Kennedy Lamb) with one out for a second time.

“They made me look smart,” LaDrigue said of the decision paying off. “We got the ground ball we needed, and the defense pulled it off. It came in a big moment, but that’s what this team has been about the last two years.”

Third-seeded Heritage (24-4) won its second straight title – it also pulled off a 1-2-3 double play in last year’s title game – with an interesting strategy of walking MALC’s lethal due of Banks and Lamb all four times they came up.

The most important occurrence came in the fifth inning.

After an error loaded the bases, right-hander Sienna Soltero grabbed a groundball comebacker from MALC’s Sara King and threw to catcher Ciara Madrid, who came out from behind the plate after the force out and threw out the batter to first baseman Amaya LaDrigue for the 1-2-3 double play to end the threat.

 

“I knew we had to get a ground ball,” said Soltero, who is 16-1 on the year after the complete game shutout. “Once I got it, I was actually more nervous because I wanted to make sure to give (Madrid) a good throw. Then she made the good throw the double play. It was awesome.”

It was a good strategy because it worked out. But purposely putting two runners on four different times and to come away with zero runs scored is a rarity, but the pitching and defense stepped up in those situations.

“Sienna isn’t a club pitcher; she only pitches for us and that’s a lot pressure to put on her,” Coach LaDrigue said. “She stepped up in big situations. I could see her dig in a little bit more and it all worked out."

In the first inning it was the unintentional intentional variety where they actually threw pitches nowhere near the plate and the final three at bats were intentional walks.

For some context, Banks came in with a .703 average with 53 extra base hits, including 23 home runs, and a nation-leading 97 RBIs, while Lamb did plenty of damage as well with a .659 average, 33 extra base hits with 64 RBIs.

“There was no way we were going to let them beat us,” Coach LaDrigue said. “They combined for five home runs (in two MALC wins) during the regular season. Once they intentionally walked (Heritage’s) Rowan (Asanovich), I figured we might as well do the same thing. Call it what you want, but we executed the game plan perfectly for the win.”

The two teams line up for the National Anthem at Farrington Stadium prior to Monday's 2A state championship game (Jason P. Skoda/AzPreps365).

MALC coach Shanda Weiler was frustrated with it, but understood it had to be done.

“Those are two of best hitters in the state,” said Weiler, whose team finished 28-3. “We’ve played (Heritage) a lot and they know what they can do. It’s just frustrating when they don’t even get a chance to swing the bat.”

The three hitters behind the dynamic duo combined to go 2-for-10 with no RBIs.

With all of that said, Heritage won its second title, the only two state titles of any kind for the school, behind the effort of many players.

They executed two safety squeeze bunts – the first by Amaya LaDrigue in the second and the second one by Janica Blanco in the seventh – to score runs, while the defense had only one error. Christine Martinez had a 13-pitch walk to help wear down Lamb (17-2) and Blanco showed aggression by going all the way to third on her squeeze bunt when the throwing error allowed her to reach first before bounding away.

Early on it seemed clear that Heritage, which lost by the scores of 13-6 and 7-5 in the season to MALC, had the experience of being in the state championship game keep them calm while MALC seemed out of sync in the environment and strategy.

“I think it did help that we’ve been here before,” said Asanovich, who is an Arizona State commit for the class of 2026. “We played under control, even when they had a lot of runners on, we didn’t let it bother us.

“We wanted to beat this team (MALC). We knew they were goning to come at us so we played with a chip on our shoulder. This one was really sweet.”

MALC, which won three CAA state titles before joining the AIA, brings back all but two seniors.

“These girls are amazing,” she said. “They put in the work. They came together as team this year, and this experience and losing in the championship will really push them this offseason.”