With the pressure on as the game headed toward the late stages, defending 4A-I state champion Saguaro stepped up Saturday afternoon at Camelback Ranch Glendale Stadium.

Down two runs heading to the final three innings, the Sabercats gradually rallied to tie in the fifth and sixth and then put up a seven-spot in the seventh to take a 13-6 win over Sunrise Mountain and repeat as champs.

"I've never felt more stress than the last 12 months," Saguaro coach Ryan Dyer said, knowing his team was the team with the target on its back this season.

That anxiety intensified after Saguaro watched a 4-0 lead disintergrate to a 6-4 deficit after four innings.

"Down by two as late as it was I admit I was geting a little nervous," Dyer said.

He shouldn't have been. Not the way his team responded from that point on led by No. 2 hitter Zach Gibbons.Gibbons, who reached base four times in the game and is dubbed Mr. Playoff by his coach, opened the top of the seventh with a single to begin the tie-breaking onslaught. With two stolen bases and two walks to his credit already, he drew a pickoff throw that was low to advance to second. Chris Akmon followed with a single scoring Gibbons. The half-inning finished nine batters later with the Sabercats on top, 13-6.

"I do what the team needs me to do," Gibbons said. "I go out and do it for them..... "I've been hitting in some tough luck lately, but I just kept going up and trying to hit the ball hard."

After Akmon's single put Saguaro up 7-6, shortstop Matt Morris delivered a bases-loaded triple to right. Morris scored a few moment s later on a throwing error.  Gibbons capped the inning with a two-run double.

Saguaro starter Travis Steinheiser, who hadn't been hit hard very often this season, couldn't hold a 4-0 lead in the last of the third. Steinheiser surrended five hits and four runs in the third and after giving up a leadoff homer to Sunrise Mountain's Adam Webb in the fourth, was relieved by lefty Chris Freudenberg. Freudenberg gave up back-to-back hits and another run, but was tough for the next three innings. He and Alan Madsen combined to blank Sunrise Mountain the rest of the way.

"They're a good team that can really swing it," Sunrise Mountain coach Eric Gardner said. "We can swing it too, we just couldn't keep it going. Then we ran out of gas on the mound."

Saguaro, which had eight players in its lineup score and seven get at least one hit, won its third state title in school history.Reed Austin (three RBI) and Kyle Young (two RBI) joined Gibbons and Morris with multiple RBI. Saguaro had 13 hits off four Sunrise Mountain pitchers.

 Sunrise Mountain (26-6) settled for state runner-up for  the second time. The Mustangs were also runner-up in 2008.