AURORA -- There were a lot of questions surrounding the Lutheran Lions at the beginning of the season.
The biggest one was how would they fare without senior pitcher and University of Utah bound senior Hailey Maestretti after she broke her arm in the batters box of a preseason intersquad scrimmage?
Turns out, they would be just fine.
The Lions had plenty of pieces in place to more than make up for her absence and when she finally came back -- just in time for a push at a three-peat -- she wasn't 100 percent, but an 85-90 percent Maestretti was still good enough.
Her dominance in the circle down the stretch, combined with bats that got hot in the regional and state tournament proved to be the right mix for the Lions, who took down No. 1 Holy Family in the semifinals and then capped the season with a 6-1 win over No. 2 Riverdale Ridge.
"I've come a long way since my arm was broken and some shoulder problems and I was able to come back for this last tournament strong," said Maestretti, who finished with 11 strikeouts against the Ravens. "I was willing to fight for my team and give it everything I could."
And her team had her back.
Riverdale Ridge (26-3), who knocked off No. 11 Frederick in the semifinals, jumped on the board in the second inning courtesy of a Tegan Medina home run
"I left one a little too down the middle and she did what she was supposed to do with it," Maestretti said.
The Ravens would keep it that way until the fifth inning. Riverdale junior starter Jazmyn Sandoval was dealing and even when the Lions made good early contact her defense had her back. Jaeanna Sandoval robbed Aleksia Severson of a home run by running through the fence to make a catch in deep center field to keep it a 1-0 game in the fourth.
The Lions bats, which got to Holy Family for 11 runs in the semifinals, finally got things going in the top of the fifth inning. Freshman Kiley Glenn ripped a two-run single to score Addi Cramer and Mackenzy Glenn and give the Lions a lead they would never relinquish.
Lutheran (23-5) would tack on its first insurance run in the sixth on Cramer's solo home run that Ravens left fielder Zoie Linville tried to sell as a catch, but the umpire thought differently.
After Maestretti got out of a bases loaded jam in the bottom half of the sixth, striking out senior Olivia Fordham to end the threat, the Lions gave her a little more cushion to work a comfortable bottom half of the seventh.
Back-to-back leadoff doubles, including another from Cramer, was followed by an absolute moonshot of a home run from University of Tennessee commit Meredith Barnhart.
It was one thing to deal with Maestretti in the circle, but when the young Lutheran bats got hot, it was too much.
"This whole weekend they came out on fire and I told them coming into this we had to score runs because Hailey's been hurt all year," said Lutheran coach Glen Maestretti, whose team outscored their four state opponents 46-6. "Offensively we were unstoppable this weekend."