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PHOENIX — Canyon del Oro's Lindsey Weldon needed a little help from her coach Friday.

With a runner on third base in the seventh inning of a tie game, Weldon battled Sahuaro ace Kira White in the at-bat of her life.

Weldon fouled off pitch after pitch before finally chopping a single into center field.

She then stood on first base pumping her fist intensely — too caught up in winning her one-on-one battle to think of the bigger picture.

"I had to grab her and tell her, 'You just won the state championship for us,'" CDO coach Amy Swiderski said.

Weldon was the center of a wild celebration afterward, the hero of CDO's 3-2 victory over Sahuaro in the Class 4A-I state championship game at Rose Mofford Complex.

Her RBI single scored Courtney Sollevold and gave the Dorados their second straight state title and fifth overall.

"I wasn't thinking about anything. I just knew I wasn't going down," Weldon said of her battle with White, who entered with an 0.19 ERA. "I guess I just didn't realize it was the winning hit."

Weldon, a junior, has largely gone unnoticed in her high school career, primarily because two of her junior teammates — All-America pitcher Kenzie Fowler and big-time college prospect Katie Asher — have done the bulk of CDO's heavy lifting.

That was true again Friday. But Weldon — a .423 hitter — and unheralded freshman Taylor Watkins, who singled and scored in the first inning for the second straight game, debunked the notion that the Dorados lacked depth.

"I think some people doubted us, but I would put our lineup against any team in the state," Swiderski said. "We have young kids, so we weren't sure how they would do this year, but this is pretty good."

The game was a duel between two of the state's most dominant pitchers, and Fowler, as has become her custom, outshined everyone.

She faltered, momentarily, midway through by giving up a two-run single to Lauren Hostetler in the fourth as Sahuaro took a 2-1 lead.

From there, Fowler (24-1) was untouchable: She retired the Cougars' last nine batters, six by strikeout, and 25 of her final 28 pitches were strikes.

"We made an adjustment and came back and were stronger in the other innings," said Fowler, who fanned 12 altogether and improved to 80-6 in her Dorados' career.

After Sahuaro took the lead, Asher answered immediately with a solo home run — her 14th of the year — that just cleared the center field fence.

Accustomed to homers that travel farther, Asher said, "It wasn't a very good home run."

Nonetheless, it tied the game at 2.

White, a sophomore, issued a four-pitch walk to Fowler to lead off the seventh, all of them outside pitches that prompted Sahuaro coach Steve Sanchez to suggest afterward they were "too careful" with the power-hitting All-American.

Sollevold came in as the courtesy runner for Fowler and stole second base. She moved over on Megan Franklin's groundout, setting up Weldon's game-winner.

"We had a shot at 'em, but they didn't die," said Sanchez, whose team finished 26-9 and just shy of the program's ninth state crown. "We knew they were going to answer, and Kira didn't give in.

"She made a good pitch, and Weldon went outside and got it. Man, it was a good game."