Jade Berry supplied the offense. Janae Berry the pitching. Their efforts keyed Queen Creek to the championship of the Hamilton Softball Invitational on Saturday afternoon at Hamilton High.

Junior Jade Berry capped a five-run rally in the third inning with a grand slam and sophomore Janae Berry survived one rough inning in an otherwise steady performance as the Bulldogs topped Salpointe Catholic, 5-2.

Queen Creek (12-3) won all five of its tournament games knocking off Tolleson, Chandler, Red Mountain, Mountain View befor Saturday's title game. The Bulldogs allowed only nine runs in their five games in the tourney. Salpointe (12-2) defeated Centennial, Basha, Shadow Ridge and Hamilton to advance to the championship. Salpointe, winner of the last three 4A state championships in softball, yielded just 13 runs in its five games.

Queen Creek's uprising in the third inning consisted of four of its eight hits and one of only two walks issued by Salpointe left-hander Gianna Mares. All five runs in the inning were scored before an out was secured. Analesa Gonzalez singled, Corie Shull walked, leadoff hitter Reese Lee notched an infield hit as did CC Marquez to knock in the first run. Jade Berry was next and stroked a laser-beam homer to right to make it 5-0.

 Mares settled in to retire the next three batters. Mares allowed only two hits over the final four innings. She finished with 12 strikeouts - seven in that span. 

Janae Berry, who went the distance as did her counterpart, surrendered both runs in the fourth giving up four of the six hits she allowed  in the outing. Back-to-back doubles by Anyssa Wilde and Jordan Johnson got Salpointe on the board. Berry got fly outs from the next two hitters, but yielded the second and final run for the Lancers thanks to Gianna Payne's RBI single. Berry retired nine of the final 10 batters she faced. She walked one and fanned five.

Salpointe's Gianna Mares delivers against Queen Creek in the Hamilton Invitational on Saturday. (Azpreps365 photo).