Mountain View. (Alyson Schmitt/AZPreps365)

The old adage, “It’s difficult to beat a team three times” was tested twice on Monday some 120 miles apart when No. 4 Canyon del Oro went up against No. 2 Mountain View in the 5A state championship game held at Grand Canyon at 1 p.m. and when No. 1 Salpointe took on No. 2 Mica Mountain in the 4A state final held at Hillenbrand Stadium on the University of Arizona campus some five hours later.

Mountain View (24-4) beat Canyon del Oro (29-6) twice in the regular season to claim the 5A Sonoran title but the Dorados held on to win the third meeting 4-3 to claim the 5A state championship and Salpointe (27-4) came back from a 2-0 deficit to Mica Mountain (29-5) to win the 4A state championship 4-2. It was the third victory for the Lancers over the Thunderbolts this year.

Mountain View head coach Ramon De La Ossa reminded his team that Canyon del Oro beat Salpointe twice in 2024 only to lose to the Lancers in the 2024 state championship game when the Dorados were competing in the 4A Conference.

“I'm super proud of the team, it's hard to beat anybody three times and we knew that going in,” De La Ossa said. “That happened to CDO a couple years ago and we warned them about it, but history repeats itself sometimes. We haven't lost in a long time, so almost forgot how to lose, and but like I said, super proud, super proud of our team.”

Mountain View was on a huge roll, reeling off 17 wins in a row after losing to Tucson High in March. This was the first state championship appearance for the Mountain Lions and the program earned it.

“This is the high point for Mountain View softball and for us as a school, and hopefully we can build on it and continue to build and hopefully get a team back up here that can push through and get that title back to Mountain View but runner-up is nothing to be ashamed about," De La Ossa added. “I told the girls, don't hang your heads, it was a super great season.”

For Canyon del Oro, history cannot be denied. The Dorados have played on the final night 16 times and the program has 10 championship trophies with head coach Kelly Fowler owning four of them. The 16 chances and 10 trophies are both “Big School” records but this team was different with freshman pitcher Savanna Mares (21-5) picking up the victory from the circle. This team only had four seniors.

“We just worked all year, which is our goal,” Fowler told Jose Garcia of the AIA. "I grabbed my assistants and said, ‘you guys, we gotta teach.’ I’m not coaching this year, I'm teaching, and we taught, and they bought in, and they worked hard, and they became phenomenal.”

The Dorados went up early with Emma Shaffer hitting a three-run shot in the top of the first inning to score Brooklyn Benavides and Jacey Mazure. Shaffer has four home runs this year and three of them came in the playoffs with two against Chaparral in the semifinal round. Not quite in the same territory as former Dorado great Kayla Bonstrom, who hit eight home runs in the 2012 state playoffs, including a two-run shot in the eighth inning of the championship game, but Shaffer’s bat was there when her team needed it.

Mountain View battled back as expected and Alycia Gordin knocked in Anyssa Bojorquez to make it 3-1 in the bottom half of the inning and then Julia Donnely tied the game up 3-3 in the bottom of the second after she brought in Makenna Dwyer and Mia Lynch.

Benavides walked to open the top of the third and then Mazura singled to put two on. Shaffer was walked with two outs to load the bases and then Braelyn Leiber walked to bring in Benavides for a 4-3 lead. Arianna Figueroa (23-4) picked up the third out to limit the damage with bases loaded and she did the same in the fifth when the Dorados were left empty after loading the bases again.

Figueroa had seven strikeouts in the loss and she stopped seven of the last eight Dorado batters to giver her team a shot but Mares was equally impressive, giving up one hit in the last 12 batters she faced. Mares walked Figueroa with two outs in the bottom of the seventh but she induced a pop fly to end the game with the winning run at the plate. Mares had four strikeouts so she depended on her team’s defense to get the job done and Mares recognized them when she accepted the MVP award after the victory.

Mazura went 3-4 and Shaffer had three RBIs with a home run. Six Mountain View batters picked up hits with Lynch going 1-2 with a double and Donnely coming through with two RBIs.

Salpointe. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)

Salpointe had six state championships in a row until Coconino beat the Lancers 2-1 in eight innings last year to put an end to the streak. The team was on a mission to bring the championship back this year and the program finished the year with 18 straight victories including three wins over Mica Mountain and a victory over Canyon del Oro. The Lancers outscored their playoff opponents 52-4.

Macee Jackson (16-2) collected eight strikeouts against Mica Mountain in the championship game to earn the 4A MVP award but the Thunderbolts struck early. Ace Heston scored Sadie Ratcliff to make it 1-0 in the top of the second and Peyton Knight doubled in Emma Pedrique to make it 2-0 in the third.

Soli Ramos cut the lead down to 2-1 after she singled and scored on an error in the bottom of the third. Peaches Sztan singled in the bottom of the fifth to allow Alyssa Montano to score on throw to tie the game up 2-2 and then Sarah Camp knocked in Sztan with two outs to put Salpointe up 3-2. CC Moraga followed with a double to score Kenzi Daley, who was running for Camp.

Jackson shut the Bolts down the rest of the way, with two runners reaching on errors. Heston (22-4) picked up six strike outs in the loss. Isabel Otero went 2-3 for Salpointe.

This was the ninth state championship for the Lancers which puts the team past Sahuaro for second all-time for “Big Schools” and it was the 13th championship appearance for the program. Salpointe moves up to 5A next year.

Mica Mountain. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)