Pueblo softball team wins first state title since 1990

TEMPE – Pueblo’s softball team got a pep talk from Lisa Pina before Monday’s Division IV state final at Farrington Stadium. Pina, who coached the Warriors to the Class 4A title in 1990, had a framed photo of that team and her championship ring to go with it.

Now this year’s Pueblo squad has its own rings to show off.

Senior pitcher Nickole Robles led the way as the fifth-seeded Warriors topped No. 2 Camp Verde 5-0, in their first championship appearance in 26 years. Robles pitched a complete-game two-hitter with seven strikeouts.

“This is so special because coming into my freshman year we barely won maybe five games,” Robles said. “Ending like this is remarkable, it’s crazy.”

Pueblo finished off the season with its 26th win, topping the total of Pina’s 25-2 championship team. Its shutout on Monday night completed an impressive run through the 24-team, single-elimination tournament. The Warriors outscored opponents 37-5 in four games, including a 10-0 mercy-rule win against top-seeded Benson in the semifinals.

“I can’t describe the feeling, but especially for my six seniors, this is the world to them,” Pueblo's first-year coach Curtis Ruiz said. “This is what they had worked for all season. To see it come to light – their smiles, their tears – it’s beautiful.”

Sophomore right fielder Ariana Ruiz, the coach’s daughter, got things started quickly Monday night by leading off with a double on a blooper to left field. She moved to third on a bunt single by Robles and then scored on a double steal, putting Pueblo ahead 1-0 in the top of the first.

“Her being able to come out here and talk to us, already experiencing this one time, it was an honor,” Ariana Ruiz said about Pina. “It really got us up and hyped about this game.”

The Warriors struck again in the top of third when sophomore third based Maritza Rubio led off with an infield single, after turning a crucial double play in the bottom of the second. Rubio scored three batters later on an RBI groundout by senior center fielder Sierra Gaskill to make it 2-0.

Pueblo pushed its lead to 4-0 in its next at-bat, with the help of a throwing error by Camp Verde. Junior first baseman Kamryn Gastelum got on with a one-out single and scored one batter later, when junior left fielder Brianna Gomez laid down a bunt, but the throw ended up in in the right field corner.

Gomez came home right after that, on an RBI double by senior second baseman Vanessa Molina, to put the Warriors ahead 4-0.

“We’ve worked so hard to get where we are,” Molina said. “To be able to finally prove to people that we’re not a joke anymore is great.”

With the game already in hand, Gaskill led of the fifth inning with a single and then scored on an RBI double to the left-field wall by senior cleanup hitter Alizea Corday.

“I feel like we showed ourselves it’s a new Pueblo, it’s a clean slate,” Corday said. “They’re going to know about us and they’re not going to take us lightly at all.

“We got everyone’s respect back because we had none.”

Pueblo won almost just as many games this season as it did over the last seven seasons combined.

Robles had retired 12 straight batters on Monday night before giving up a one-out walk in the bottom of the seventh. But then she struck out two in a row to clinch her 14th win of the season and start off the celebration.

“She’s been our champ, she’s been our horse,” Coach Ruiz said. “She’s won all the big games; she carried this team, and with that defense behind her, she was pretty unstoppable all year.”