Shadow Ridge rumbles to first title

Shadow Ridge players preached team unity during the Class 4A state softball tournament at Bishop Gorman.

Game by game, whoever emerged as a hero, the Mustangs refused to take singular credit.

On Saturday, they cried tears of joy. Together.

Junior pitcher Jasmine Martin retired 12 of 16 batters and led a 15-hit attack to help the Mustangs to a 13-3, five-inning victory over Coronado and their first state championship.

“We wanted to win this game, this was our game,” said Martin, who went 2-for-3 with a three-run homer. “Our chemistry is amazing. I truly haven’t been with a team that has been so together, so as one as this team. We are one team; coach Julia (Meyn) has brought us together.”

Shadow Ridge (31-2) had been to

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six previous state tournaments but never reached the title game.

“This is long overdue, it was our year,” said Martin, who has committed to UNLV. “We did what Shadow Ridge does. We won, and we did exactly what we were taught to do.”

Coronado (29-10) took a 2-0 lead in the first inning after back-to-back singles by Kaila Angel and Ashley Ward and two Shadow Ridge errors. But the Mustangs responded in the bottom of the second with seven runs, highlighted by Martin’s homer off the scoreboard and Tori Nichols’ three-run homer.

Shea Clements added a three-run homer — her second home run in two days — in the fifth inning.

Clements finished 2-for-3 with two runs and three RBIs, and Nichols, Caitlin Covington, Hailey Morrow and Sydney Morgan each had two hits and at least one run and one RBI for the Mustangs. Every batter in the lineup had at least one hit.

“This team’s chemistry is unbelievable; it’s been unreal what our connection is with each other,” Clements said through tears. “It’s the fun and the love that we share with each other that played a big role in all these games that we’ve played. The wins, the losses, everything. The chemistry just clicked with everything.”

Angel and Ward each had two hits for the Cougars.

Led by senior Tyler Edlefsen, Palo Verde’s boys ran their streak to six consecutive Class 4A state titles.

The Panthers scored 91 points to edge second-place Coronado by seven points.

Edlefsen won two events and swam a strong relay leg to have a hand in 36 points.

“We knew it would be close with Coronado, and we knew they want to beat us,” Gonzalez said. “We did what we had to do to beat them and make sure they can’t knock us down yet.”

Edlefsen, Trajan Houston, Thomas Miller and Joseph Gutierrez won the 200-yard medley relay in 1:37.75, beating Coronado by half a second and taking a lead the Panthers maintained through every event.

Edlefsen followed with wins in the 200 IM in 1:49.98 and the 100 breaststroke in 57.40.

The Panthers’ Ren Prescott, Brooks Blackert, Devin Bauman and Gutierrez finished second in the day’s final event, the 400 freestyle relay, to secure the title.

“All the boys stepped up and did well, and that last relay did what they had to do,” Gonzalez said.

In Class 3A, Boulder City came up short in its attempt to start another championship streak.

Truckee won its second consecutive 3A championship with 135 points to 127 for Boulder City, which had won seven consecutive championships until finishing second last year.

Boulder City’s A.J. Pouch won the 200 IM in 1:50.42 and the 100 breaststroke in 55.63 and was part of two winning relays.

In the 200 freestyle relay, Elias Woodbury, Ladd Cox, Chandler Larson and Pouch finished first in 1:34.31. Martin Thompson, Ethan Porter, Joseph Purdy and Pouch won the 400 freestyle relay in 3:19.30.