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PHOENIX — The Sunnyside High School softball team was two outs away from its first-ever state championship game appearance, but Mari Contreras was already celebrating.

Well, singing, at least.

At the urging of her teammates, the Blue Devils' closer sung a few lines of a favorite song, Norteño star Valentin's "Como Me Duele," to cut the tension in a particularly stressful stretch in the seventh inning.

"I got a lot of it out before I started laughing," Contreras said.

As she laughed, Contreras relaxed. The next two outs went quickly, and Sunnyside held on for an 8-5 win Wednesday over Glendale O'Connor at Rose Mofford Softball Complex.

Sunnyside (31-4) will take on Peoria Centennial in Friday's Class 5A-II state final.

No Blue Devils team has ever advanced this far.

"This is the greatest team in Sunnyside history," said outfielder Kaleigh Gates, who went 2 for 3 with a home run and three RBIs.

O'Connor (28-8) refused to play the role of a playoff pushover. Trailing 1-0, the Eagles rallied for four runs in the fifth inning to take a commanding lead.

Kyla Christmas delivered the biggest blow, a double off the left field wall that made it 3-1. Christmas advanced to third on the throw, then scored when Sunnyside pitcher Ivy Campas uncorked a wild pitch.

The Blue Devils returned to the dugout deflated.

"We thought we were going to have to play (in the tiebreaker) at 7," Contreras said. "But we wanted to go into the championship game, and so we started hitting."

The Devils matched O'Connor with four runs in their half to take a 5-4 lead. The first three Sunnyside batters reached base. Contreras then drove home two with a single.

Gates tied the game with a sacrifice fly to left field, and freshman Stella Pinon gave Sunnyside the lead with an RBI single.

"That was great, because I had been in a little bit of a slump," Pinon said. "We were talking that we had to come back, and that we could do it. We did."

The four-run rally made a winner of Campas — who allowed eight hits in five-plus innings while battling the 100-degree heat — and a believer out of coach Pete Palomarez.

"When you're (31-4), you're (31-4) for a reason," he said. "It means you can hit the ball, you can play defense, and you can come back from a deficit like that."