Sabino’s Jesamin Aguilar celebrates as she rounds second on her solo homer to extend the Sabercat lead to 3-0 in the third inning against Empire. The Sabercats won 5-2 for their fourth straight state championship.

 Kelly Presnell photos, Arizona Daily Star

It was worth the wait for the Sabino High School softball team.

The Sabercats won the oft-delayed all-Tucson Class 3A state championship game on 520 Day to take home their fourth straight title.

The No. 1-seeded Sabercats (30-3) beat No. 2 seed Empire 5-2 on Saturday at Tucson High’s Cherry Field, almost at the base of the Father Kino statute on Kino Parkway.

“I’m just beyond proud,” said Sabino head coach Cyndi Cubillas. “We talked about this from Day 1 and then we worked our way back and came up with a plan … we knew today was going to be a battle. We knew today was going to be a hard game and we knew Empire was gonna come out strong.”

Sabino has now won six softball state titles in program history.

Sabercat sophomore pitcher/utility player Avery Nielson said winning another title is great for the school because of how fired up the campus was.

“It’s really cool because we just have so much support behind us,” Nielson said.

Empire (30-2) won state championships in 2015 and 2017.

The championship game was played a week later than originally scheduled. At first, it was to be held May 13 at ASU but was moved to Tucson because of its all-Southern Arizona nature.

However, the inaugural Pac-12 softball tournament was going on last week, so it was scheduled for Tuesday at the Hillenbrand Stadium — but it was rain-delayed. Then the second attempt on Wednesday at the UA was also washed out.

Sabino’s starter Avery Nielson leaps in the air after striking out the final Empire batter and closing out a 5-2 win in the state Class 3A softball championship game at Cherry Field on Saturday.

“Oh my gosh, I felt like I was going to throw up every day, like I felt like I couldn’t eat almost,” said Sabino senior outfielder Riley McFarland. “Just constantly being anxious, like ‘is the game going to happen?’ ‘are we really going to get rained again for the third time?’ just anticipating the game every day, every second.”

Wednesday’s game was called in the top of the second inning with Empire leading 1-0, but that lead was wiped away, and Saturday’s game was restarted from the beginning.

Nielson said they came up with a new plan after Wednesday.

Sabino jumped ahead 2-0 in the second when junior catcher Xitlali Zuniga scored on an error, and then later, senior middle infielder Bailey Nichols scored on another error.

Nielson pitched a complete game, giving up two runs on five hits and five walks, striking out nine.

Senior infielder Jesamin Aguilar hit a solo home run in the third. McFarland added a two-run double in the fifth.

Empire’s only losses this season were Saturday and 2-1 at Sabino on April 4. Sabino knocked Empire out of the state tournament semifinals the last two years: 1-0 in 15 innings in 2021, and then 16-7 last year.

The game snapped an 11-game winning streak for the Ravens. Sabino finishes the year on an 11-game streak.

“I’ve never experienced anything like this,” McFarland said. “It’s close to the 15-inning game we had my sophomore year, semis against Empire where it feels like the game just doesn’t stop. It’s insane.”

Empire struck back in the sixth with a two-run homer by junior first baseman/outfielder Morgan Faunce, but Sabino held on to win.

Each team’s last official game before Saturday was May 9.

Some Empire and Sabino players are on the same club team, and they played in Phoenix later in the day in a tournament.

“We knew this was going to be the game to play,” Nielson said. “We knew that it was going to be hard and we were going to have to do our best and four of my teammates are on there so it’s really cool to play against them too.”

Inside pitch

Southern Arizona teams have won every mid-sized softball state championship since 2015.

Under the current format, Sabino (2019, 2021-23), Sahuarita (2018) and Empire (2017) won 3A state championships. In 2016 Ironwood Ridge, Catalina Foothills and Pueblo won state titles when there were five divisions, and in 2015 Cienega and Empire won when there were four classes.

With Sabino’s fourth state title in a row, Tucson schools have the best streaks in softball. Salpointe Catholic leads the way with five consecutive championships.

The Sabino High School softball team clinches its fourth straight 3A state title with a 5-2 win over Empire on Saturday, May 20, at Cherry Field (video by James Kelley / Special to the Arizona Daily Star)

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