No. 3 Canyon del Oro made it back to the state championship game after beating No. 8 Willow Canyon 3-1 Friday night at Cherry Field but this time the Dorados will be playing for the 5A trophy after moving up from the 4A Conference over the offseason.

This will be the 15th championship appearance for the Dorados, which moves the team to second place in that category behind the 18 appearances by San Manuel. The Dorados also have nine state championships, with the first three coming in the 5A Conference and the last six coming at the 4A level starting in 2007. Salpointe beat Canyon del Oro to win the 4A state championship last year and the Lancers will be playing Coconino Saturday night to extend their record championships to seven straight.

This spring, Canyon del Oro (32-3) will face No. 1 Desert Mountain (29-1-1) on Monday at the Farrington Softball Stadium located on the ASU campus for the 5A state championship.

Desert Mountain beat No. 2 Canyon View 1-0 in the other semifinal played at Red Mountain to set up the match with Canyon del Oro. Desert Mountain is coming off of back-to-back championships in 2023 and 2024 and the Wolves feature standout pitcher Lilly “Goose” Goodwin (19-0), the winner of the Gatorade Arizona Softball Player of the Year for last year. Goodwin picked up 16 strikeouts in the win over Canyon View, giving the junior 302 on the year and 768 in her career. Even better, Goodwin has a record of 54-1 and she is riding 40 straight victories.

The Dorados will counter with senior standout Amelia Streuber (20-2), who collected 13 strikeouts in the win over Willow Canyon (21-11-1) to give the Oregon State commit 259 on the year and 61 victories in her career.

Streuber held Willow Canyon in check until the Wildcats broke through with two hits in the top of the seventh to break up the no-hitter and put a run on the scoreboard. Lucy Burroughs led off with a double and then Madison Jones picked up and RBI one out later to cut the Dorado lead down to 3-1. Jones stole second base and the Wildcats had the tying run at the plate with only one out but Streuber ended the threat with two more strikeouts.

Likewise, freshman Easton Spriggs (11-5) kept the Dorados off the bases until the bottom of the third inning with Kayla Hendrix opening the lineup with a double and then Jacey Mazura beat out a sacrifice bunt attempt to put two on. Kelsey Rolls walked to load the bases with no outs but Spriggs induced two grounders to collect two outs. Taya Kelly came through with a single to score two runs and that score held up until the bottom of the sixth when Sadie Jones doubled in a run to make it 3-0. Burroughs (2-4) took the circle for Spriggs after one out in the inning.

Willow Canyon. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)

NOTE: Longtime Willow Canyon head coach Donnie Tizzano was in New York attending a funeral and he gave credit to his assistants in a social media post, “Off to a celebration of life for my good buddy's dad in New York. I wanted to send a shout to my coaching staff for taking the girls to Tucson for the state semifinal tonight. Bobby Sparks, Montez Darnell Jefferson, Luke Atkins, and Scott Rudolph. Our program has always been bigger than softball.”

Longtime Willow Canyon assistant Bobby Sparks has a talk with his infield. (Andy MOrales/AZPreps365)

 

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