AURORA – There was a moment right after the Holy Family Tigers clinched their first Class 4A state title berth since 2022 by beating Palmer Ridge in extra innings that head coach Moriah Nguyen sat in quiet contemplation with her star pitcher Emmaline Humphreys in the outfield grass.

To put it simply, the Stanford-bound senior was gassed both physically and emotionally.’

Nguyen had a decision to make.

“We’ve talked about it all season, that Em can’t be the one to keep us in games,” said Nguyen, who turned to sophomore Carley Tooley in the rubber game against Windsor at Aurora Sports Park. “We have to score runs, we have to hit and it felt they stepped up for her and for each other and they did the dang thing.”

The top-seeded Wizards touched Tooley for three runs in the first inning – senior Kylie Smith delivering the big blow, a two-run home run – before Nguyen made the change back to Humphreys.

The senior shut the door on the Wizards over the next 6.2 innings, allowing just one unearned run and striking out 13. The bats came to the rescue in a six run fourth inning and propelled the Tigers to their first state title since 2021, winning 7-4.

“I think it gave me a bit of second wind that Tooley could start,” said Humphreys, who in he last 13.2 innings against the top-ranked Wizards struck out 30. “That was totally a team effort for us to be able to pull that off because I totally felt like I was running on empty.”

Windsor junior Jenna McGinnis was rolling through the first three innings, but there were signs of her tiring and the Tigers pounced big time in the top of the fourth.

As they have done all season, they made their opponent pay for a leadoff error. What followed was contagious.

After Lindsey Morris reached, her courtesy runner Navi Whitlock move to third on Carley Turney’s – Nguyen’s freshman sister – single to right.

Graci Baker, Friday’s opening game hero, ripped a single to right that scored Whitlock. A throwing error by Emily Couch allowed Turney to score and Baker to go all the way to third.

The train was moving.

Freshman Kaiya Devereux’s RBI single made it 4-3 and there still wasn’t an out.

After Dalynn O’Blia reached on the third error of the inning, Windsor coach Haley Hanson finally lifted a tiring McGinnis for junior Shannon Nielsen.

She was promptly greeted by Jaelyn Sandoval’s 2-run double to right, and just like that the Tigers had not only completed the comeback, but had taken the lead 5-4.

Insurance came two batters later on a dropped third strike to Bella Karasow that allowed Sandoval to come home.

“You could definitely tell by the balls she was throwing that there was a lack of focus,” said Sandoval, who added three more hits to her impressive state tournament résumé – that included a 4-for-4 effort in the quarterfinals against Frederick. “We’ve played softball our whole lives and this was just one more softball game, and it was good to feel this success.”

Humphreys did the rest.

A quick nine pitch inning after the lengthy top of the fourth in the bottom half, moved the momentum all the way back to the Tigers.

“I was almost euphoric in a weird way, because I knew I couldn’t control it,” said Humphreys of entering with the deficit. “If we were down 10-0 or 1-0, it doesn’t make a difference, you still have to score to win.

“So I just tried to keep it as close as possible in case and we did what we did.”