Ironwood Ridge beat Peoria Centennial 5-2 to win the 5A state softball championship at ASU's Farrington Stadium in Tempe on Monday night.
The state title was the third since 2014 for the third-seeded Nighthawks (26-6) in their seventh championship game appearance since 2008.
The second-seeded Coyotes finished the season with a 21-7 record.
Ironwood Ridge exploded for three runs at the top of the seventh inning with the game tied at 2.
Centennial sophomore pitcher Meghan Golden gave up a base hit to Ironwood senior Keira Painter. Then junior Kayla Keith hit a line drive RBI double up the middle to bring Painter home for a 3-2 lead.
With runners on first and third, Ironwood Ridge attempted to steal second. With senior Maddie Toia hedging off the bag at third, Centennial senior catcher Mackenzie Celeya attempted a trick play by throwing the ball to her third baseman.
Celeya overthrew the ball and Toia ran home to give Ironwood Ridge a 4-2 lead.
“We just saw that they were going to try and throw down and then try and trick us at third and she overthrew the ball so I had to go in and score,” Toia said.
Shortly after, senior shortstop Diana Nisbett, who finished 3-for-5, smacked another RBI double to center field to extend the lead to 5-2.
“It was such an amazing feeling scoring another run to have that insurance and knowing that we needed it,” Nisbett said.
“The start of the seventh, it was tied so we knew we had to score and if we didn’t score they could’ve possibly come back to win it.”
Ironwood Ridge jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning, taking advantage of three hits off Centennial senior pitcher Sydnie Sahhar.
Centennial dropped a pop fly to right field hit by Ironwood Ridge senior Jaden Reid.
An additional fielding error from a line drive enabled Nisbett to get on base before senior Erica Baird batted Reid in for the game’s first run.
After Centennial pulled Sahhar for Meghan Golden at top of the third inning, Golden gave up the game’s first home run four batters later to Nisbett for the 2-0 Ironwood Ridge lead.
Centennial finally scored in bottom of the fourth as Ironwood Ridge’s Shelby Thompson gave up her first hit of the game, a single to Centennial senior shortstop Dren Meginiss.
Thompson then gave up another single to Marley Burd and another RBI to Sahhar.
In the bottom of the fifth with two outs, senior first baseman Hailey Galvez hit an RBI double to left field over Nisbett that tied the score at 2.
Nisbett’s seventh-inning insurance run helped make up for the catch that went just over her head.
“I feel like I could’ve caught that one and they scored a run on it,” Nisbett said.
“I was really down on myself but I have my teammates to back me up so I knew it was going to be OK.”
