STANDISH — The York High softball team is going back to the Class B championship to defend its title.

The No. 1 Wildcats needed to work for every out in Tuesday’s Class B South regional final at St. Joseph’s College but ultimately had too much offensive firepower and defensive skill for upstart third-seed Freeport, prevailing 12-6. It was York’s 35th consecutive win.

The Wildcats (19-0) will head to the University of Southern Maine at 12:30 p.m. Saturday for a championship game rematch against North winner Nokomis and their ace pitcher Mia Koots.

York beat Nokomis, 2-1, in last year’s state championship. Nokomis advanced with a 5-1 win against Old Town in the North final.

“Definitely all eyes are on us and we definitely feel that when we play,” said York senior pitcher McKayla Kortes who, like Coots, was announced as a candidate for the Miss Maine Softball award. “That’s a weight on our shoulders and we’re able to play through it and I think part of that is we have the experience and other teams don’t. We’re playing Nokomis next and they definitely have some experience and they’ll want some revenge.”

Freeport, 3-13 a year ago, finished the season 16-3. The Falcons fell behind 6-0 in the first inning but made life difficult for Kortes, who had shut them out 10-0 in the regular season. Freeport displayed patience at the plate, benefited from wildness by Kortes (five walks, three runs allowed on wild pitches), and most of all showed an ability to swing the bat and make contact.

Freeport finished with seven hits while Kortes had seven strikeouts. York’s defense did not make an error and turned three double plays.

Two of the double plays were nearly identical. In both the first and fourth innings, with a runner at second, York turned 6-3-5 double plays featuring strong throws from Sarah Orso at short and Maddie Fitzgerald at third and a finishing tag at third by Ella Hickey.

In the third inning, with Freeport threatening after cutting the lead to 7-3, York catcher Lindsay Rivers had a hand in all three outs. First, she snagged a foul ball with her bare hand on an instant reaction play. Moments later Rivers hustled to collect a wild pitch and raced back to the plate to tag out Isabella George who was trying to score from third. After tagging George, Rivers saw a Freeport runner wandering toward her dugout, apparently thinking the inning was over, and threw the ball to Orso for the tag and actual third out.

“We needed to get going again in the middle of the game and that picked the whole team up and that was really important,” said Rivers, who also had two singles and drove in two runs.

York responded with its bats, belting out six hits, including RBI doubles from Fitzgerald and Nya Avery in a five-run inning to push the lead to 12-3.

Freeport’s George, who had been the starting pitcher and couldn’t get out of the first inning, came back to the pitcher’s circle and squelched the rally. George did not allow a hit over the final four innings.

Freeport did continue to hit the ball, scoring once in the fourth on a long RBI double by Alison Brown and twice in the fifth with Rosie Panenka hitting another run-scoring double.

“It was a little rough in the beginning but this team all season long has had an amazing amount of grit,” said Freeport first-year coach Chris St. Pierre. “There is no quit in any one of these kids. … This game right here just showed that they’re willing to fight.”