RENO — The Palo Verde softball team is one victory away from completing an undefeated season and winning a Class 5A state championship.

The Panthers downed Centennial 5-2 in the winners’ bracket semifinal of the state tournament Friday afternoon at UNR’s Hixson Park.

The Panthers (24-0), the Southern Region champions, will line up against the Bulldogs (20-14), the South’s No. 2 seed, once again in the title game at 10 a.m. Saturday. Centennial, which bested Spanish Springs 5-4 in an elimination game later Friday, will have to beat Palo Verde twice to claim the title in the double-elimination tournament.

It’ll be the teams’ sixth meeting of the season. The Panthers won the first five, but two were only by 1-0 margins.

Palo Verde sophomore Alexis Kearnes had the biggest hit of the afternoon with a seeing-eye single in the bottom of the third that bounced into center field and plated two runs to give the Panthers a 4-0 lead.

“I was just staying confident, and I was keeping everything simple,” said Kearnes, who went 2-for-3 with two RBIs. “I was noticing the first few pitches were right there, so I decided to jump on her early.”

Kearnes’ clutch hit came on the heels of a Kayleen Enriquez bloop single that fell into shallow right field and scored a run.

Catcher Paige Brandes knocked in the Panthers’ opening run of the contest with a single in the first inning.

In the circle, Ava Koenig continued to keep runs off the board with three strikeouts and one earned run on seven hits.

Amanda Campos-Colon drove in the Bulldogs’ first run on a double to right in the sixth, and Sloane Merrell launched a solo home run over the scoreboard in right-center field in the seventh to make it 5-2. But that was as close as the Bulldogs got.

For Palo Verde, being within a win of a perfect season and a state title has been a long time coming. The Panthers are playing in their third straight state tournament but haven’t won the championship since 2017.

“It’s great. We worked really hard this season,” Kearnes said. “It’s been awhile since we’ve won a state championship, so we are going to do this for our school, as a team, all together.”

Bulldogs bounce back

The loss didn’t end Centennial’s chance at a title.

The Bulldogs turned a 3-1 deficit into a 5-3 lead in the top of the sixth inning, gaining enough of an edge to hold on for a win over Spanish Springs (26-13-1), the Northern champion.

From the third until the sixth inning, the Bulldogs were able to get their leadoff hitter aboard, but they couldn’t do any damage until the sixth.

Down 3-1 with the bases loaded and no outs, Sydnee Smith singled up the middle to tie the game at 3-3.

“She’s done it a couple of times for us in recent history,” Centennial coach Mike Livreri said. “It’s great for her to come through for us again. We needed that rally.”

Leeah Ibarra followed with a single, moving courtesy runner Layla Bosco over to third. Valeria Lopez then gave Centennial its first lead of the game at 4-3 with an RBI groundout to second base.

The Bulldogs’ final run scored on a wild pitch.

In the circle, Centennial’s Lily Fournier responded after surrendering some early runs with eight straight outs from the fourth through sixth innings.

“We didn’t make it easy, but at the end of the day, we clutched up and got those last three outs,” Livreri said. “We got to win that one game (tomorrow), and then who knows what happens in game two. We will be ready. We’ve got some fight in us still.”

Spanish Springs had stayed alive earlier Friday with a 7-6 win over North No. 2 seed Reed (28-9-1).