Featured

Top Southern Arizona sports stories of 2025: May

By Javier Morales

Posted on December 29, 2025

Top Southern Arizona sports stories of 2025:

Arizona Athletics

Baseball’s Big 12 Triumph: On May 24, Arizona made history by winning the Big 12 Baseball Championship in their inaugural season with the conference. The Wildcats defeated TCU 2–1 in a 10-inning thriller at Globe Life Field. Ironwood Ridge graduate Andrew Cain hit a game-tying home run in the ninth, and Salpointe alum Mason White was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
Wildcats advance to Eugene (Ore.) Regional Final: Arizona had a school-record eight home runs, three of them blasted by White, as part of a 19-hit barrage by the Wildcats in their 14-4 shellacking May 31 of Utah Valley in the Eugene (Ore.) Regional semifinals. Chip Hale’s team improved to 41-18 with the victory.
Softball Falls Short in Tucson Regional: The Wildcats (No. 13 seed) hosted the NCAA Tucson Regional at Hillenbrand Stadium from May 16–18, and they could not get past Ole Miss in the final, ending their season 47-13.
Devyn Netz Big 12 Player of the Year: Devyn Netz was named the 2025 Big 12 Player of the Year, a historic first for Arizona in its first Big 12 season, excelling as a dominant pitcher and hitter with a .347 average, 17 HRs, 58 RBIs, 22 wins, and a perfect fielding percentage, also earning finalist spots for USA Softball Player of the Year and All-America honors.

High School Sports

No. 1 Salpointe Earns 4A State Championship: The top-ranked Salpointe Catholic Lancers earned the 2025 4A baseball state championship after defeating the Flagstaff Eagles 8-0 on May 19 at Tempe Diablo Stadium. It’s the school’s first state title since 2019 and their second overall. An inside-the-park home run by Colton Raetzman started the scoring in the first inning.
Top-seeded Empire Earns Second Consecutive 3A state championship: The Ravens also won their fourth title in the last 10 years with May 11’s 1-0 victory following Eva Peace’s walk-off single with two outs in the bottom of the eighth over No. 3 Yuma Catholic at Arizona State’s Farrington Stadium. Empire’s senior ace Kendall Freidinger, who went 20-1, struck out 16 batters and walked one in her complete-game one-hitter. Empire (28-1) improved to 45-1 dating to the end of last season, which was capped by its 10-6 win over Valley Christian in the championship game.
Three Southern Arizona Softball and Baseball Teams Finish Runner-Up: Salpointe’s run of seven straight softball state titles came to an end with the Lancers’ loss to Flagstaff Coconino in the 4A championship. Canyon del Oro finished second in the 5A softball state championship and Tombstone’s baseball team was runner up in the 2A state championship.
Salpointe Boys Volleyball’s Magican Run Comes Up Short: Salpointe’s boys volleyball team, which won the first state championship in the history of the sport at the high school level in 1994, came close to finally winning its second title with a loss to ALA-Queen Creek in the 4A championship match. Salpointe finished 29-9 after winning 15 straight matches before losing to ALA-Queen Creek.
Pusch Ridge wins Division III Boys Golf Title: Pusch Ridge held on to beat Phoenix Country Day 603 to 604 to win the Division III state championship that was held at the Aguila Golf Course on May 10 and 11. Pusch Ridge sophomore Mark Stypa finished second in the individual competition.
Three Tennis Teams Capture State Titles: The championship teams –
- D-II: Catalina Foothills Boys
- D-II: Salpointe Girls
- D-III: Pusch Ridge Girls
- STATE TENNIS TEAM RUNNERS-UP
  - D-II: Canyon del Oro Girls
  - D-III: Pusch Ridge Boys
- STATE TENNIS SINGLES CHAMPIONS
  - D-I: Vikram Nerendran, Rincon/UHS
  - D-II: Lacey Kaufman, Salpointe
  - D-II: Austin Cohen, Catalina Foothills
- STATE TENNIS DOUBLES CHAMPIONS
  - D-II: Parker Servoss/Santiago Astengo, Catalina Foothills
  - D-III: David Gonzalez/Adam Olson, Sabino
  - D-III: Estelle Fetsis/Taryn Martin, Pusch Ridge
- STATE TENNIS SINGLES RUNNER-UP
  - D-II: Junchen Jia, Catalina Foothills
- STATE TENNIS DOUBLES RUNNERS-UP
  - D-II: Avery Eliscu/Camryn Hansen, Canyon del Oro
  - D-II: Ahmed Bozdogan/Aaron Zeldin, Catalina Foothills
Southern Arizona Wins Five Track and Field Titles:
- 400: Nevaeh Anderson, Pueblo 47.36
- 1600: Katherine McNulty, Catalina Foothills 4:52.74
- 3200: Katherine McNulty, Catalina Foothills 10:46.39
- Javelin: Isaac Moyle, Salpointe 208-04
- 4×400: Buena, 3:17.64: Ricardo Brooks, Armani Ramirez-Sperle, Jayden Thomas, Vijay Carrier

Pima Community College

Softball Ends Second Straight Appearnance in NJCAA World Series: The Aztecs closed out the 2025 season on May 22 at the NJCAA Division II World Series with the seventh-seeded team losing to No. 1 St. Johns River College 9-8 in a consolation-bracket game. Rebekah Quiroz’s team finished 53-9 overall (most wins since 2012). It was the first single-digit loss season since 2010. Their 35-7 record in the ACCAC were the most wins since 2015.
- Pima’s individual honors:
- Arianna Flores (Pitcher): NJCAA Division II Third Team All-American, ACCAC Division II Co-Pitcher of the Year, First Team All-ACCAC, and Region I, Division II MVP.
- Clarissa Figueroa: NJCAA All-Academic.
- Talia Martin: NJCAA All-Academic.
- Legend Otero: NJCAA All-Academic

Other Developments

Prominent Local Sports Figure Don Bacon Passes Away: Bacon, a member of Tucson High School’s state championship baseball and basketball teams in the early 1960’s, and a prominent figure at Sahuaro High School for several years, passed away May 24 at age 82. Bacon never recovered from a stroke he suffered a month ago. “We lost a legend,” Sahuaro girls basketball coach and athletic director Steve Botkin stated. “A wonderful man who would do anything for anyone. He was a great friend, and I will truly miss him dearly.”
Local High School Football Coaching Great John Kashner Passes Away: Kashner passed away of an apparent heart attack less than a month after he spoke at the retirement ceremony of one of his former assistant coaches at Flowing Wells — Pat Nugent. He became emotional when discussing the bond he was part of with all of his coaching staffs at Casa Grande, Flowing Wells and Coolidge. His coaching tree at Flowing Wells from 1988 to 1996 included Nugent (who retired after leading Mica Mountain to a state championship last fall), Salpointe coach Pat Ryden (a Flowing Wells alum who began his coaching career under Kashner), former CDO coach Dustin Peace (also a former Caballero who led CDO to two state titles before resigning following the 2024 season), Jorge Mendivil (who won 126 games in his 23-year career at San Manuel, Empire and Amphi before retiring after last season) and Shawn Wasson (former head coach at Catalina and Cholla).
Former Cienega and Central Arizona Standout Passes Away: Andrew Michael Leonard, a Class of 2017 Cienega graduate who went on to play basketball at Central Arizona College and Western New Mexico, passed away in early May at age 26 after a courageous battle with metastatic melanoma. Leonard had a history of training with former Arizona football and basketball player Kelvin Eafon, who operates the Desert Storm basketball club. He played in 74 career varsity basketball games at Cienega and averaged 13.5 points, 2.9 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1.3 steals per game his senior season (2016-17). As a freshman at Central Arizona in 2017-18, Andrew had a 50-point game while making 13 shots from 3-point range, a school record. He was named an Academic All-American during his time at Central Arizona.
Mexican Pacific Baseball League Team Announces Move to Tucson: Tucson became the first city in the U.S. that was slated to have a team in the Mexican Pacific League (Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacífico) starting in the winter with the Mayos de Novojoa (Sonora) moving their operation to Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium. Members of the community responsible for bring the team to Tucson were Pima County administrator Jan Lesher and deputy administrator Carmine DeBonis Jr., Kino Sports Complex director Sarah Horvath and her team, Mexican Baseball Fiesta founder Francisco Gamez and CEO Frank Gamez III, and Southern Arizona Sports, Tourism, and Film Authority (SASTFA) executive director Blake Eager and board member Edgar Soto.
Audrey Jimenez Claims Gold Medal in 2025 Senior Pan American Championships: The Sunnyside graduate, representing Team USA, claimed a gold medal May 9 in the 50 kg (110-pound) weight class at the 2025 Senior Pan American Championships at Monterrey, Mexico. Jimenez pinned Madison Parks of Canada in 3:58 in the finals after the match was tied at 2-2 in the second period. Jimenez locked Parks in a cradle and then turned her before finishing the fall.