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PHOENIX — Phoenix Northwest Christian defeated Willcox 1-0 in a classic pitchers' duel in the Class 2A state title game on Saturday at Rose Mofford Softball Complex.

Northwest Christian scored the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning on an infield ground ball.

With runners on second and third and one out, Kelsey Duede hit a roller to shortstop Krissy Flores. Flores could not gather the ball cleanly, and Rachel Boop scored easily from third.

Willcox pitcher Britinie Hardine and her counterpart, Northwest Christian's Jenna Clifton, each carried perfect games into the fourth inning. Hardine took the loss despite a tremendous effort.

"If we could have gotten one more inning out of her, we had the top of our lineup headed up and we had been starting to contact her," Willcox coach Kirk Harris said of Hardine. "When you see a pitcher for too long you are going to hit her, and they just hit her before we hit them."

It was Willcox's second appearance in the state championship game in school history, having lost in the final in 1997.

Clifton broke up Hardine's no-hit bid with a triple in the bottom of the fourth. Hardine escaped further trouble by striking out the next batter, Duede, to end the threat.

Hardine returned the favor to Clifton in the top of the seventh when she singled to end the latter's bid at perfection, but the Cowgirls failed to score.

Northwest Christian threatened again in the bottom half. Duede hit a line drive off the base of the wall with two outs, but was held to a single. Hardine forced extra innings by getting a groundout to the circle.