Kendall Freidinger collected 13 strikeouts in a 6-0 victory over No. 11 Tanque Verde Friday night to help send No. 7 Empire back to the 3A championship for the second year in a row. The Ravens lost to Sabino 5-2 last year and the program is making its fourth final appearance since winning it all in 2015 and 2017.

Freidinger (19-1) is now 44-3 in her career with 563 strikeouts with 214 coming this year. She won’t match the 293 she had last year but she’s working at the same pace of over two strikeouts an inning. It’s difficult to get any kind of offense going when working with only one out and the Hawks found that out early with Freidinger shutting down the first 11 baters she faced before giving up a double to Claire Achilles. Lizzy Pratt came up with another double off Freidinger with two outs in the top of the seventh and that was it.

Meanwhile, the Ravens scored three runs in the bottom of the first, one in the fifth and two more in the sixth. Abby Zsitvay had a triple and an RBI, Mila Rios-Encinas had a double and two RBI and Angelina Dehler had a double and an RBI for Empire. Freshmen Gabby Fukunaga (10-5) and Achilles (2-1) took the circle for Tanque Verde. Achilles collected eight strikeouts.

Tanque Verde loses one senior starter so the future is there for head coach Mark Stevens, who led Catalina Foothills to a state championship in 2016. Tanque Verde (19-12) took out No. 6 Winslow 7-4 in the first round and No. 3 Snowflake 10-2 in the quarterfinal round to cap a successful season.

“I liked the way they put it together,” Stevens said. “We started out with one pitcher and she pitched a lot but this was a solid team. They battled every single game. We weren't the best hitters, but we hit pretty well this year. Both pitchers are freshmen and the future looks good.”

Shannon Woolridge has Empire (25-7) rolling again but the team will face No. 1 Valley Christian (26-2) in the championship game after the Trojans beat No. 5 Yuma Catholic 8-1 in the other semifinal game.

“I will say togetherness is still there,” Woolridge explained on his current team. “We always preach togetherness and everyone has a role. Everyone matters. This team has had some big moments and this team doesn’t make them too big and they kind of slow the game down a little bit when we need to and we've had a lot of clutch performances the past couple of years. I would say that that's probably been the difference.”