A pitcher’s duel played out Thursday night at Schafer Field in Sigourney and when the dust cleared, the No. 7 Sigourney Savages were moving on to the regional semifinal round of the class 1A playoffs with a 1-0 victory over English Valleys. Freshman phenom pitcher Carly Goodwin was on her game in the circle from the onset for Sigourney, striking out the first 13 batters in a row that came to the plate for EV. While Goodwin was posting zeros on the scoreboard so was her counterpart Hannah Marsh for the Bears. The first hit and baserunner for either side came with two outs in the bottom of the third when Dani Aller singled to right for Sigourney. In the fourth, the Savages would break through for the game’s only run. Josephine Moore singled with one out, Kaylee Weber bunted the courtesy runner Amiya Smallwood to second and with two outs Macy Fisch delivered a clutch, RBI single to make it 1-0 Sigourney.
Goodwin and the Savage defense would make that lone tally stand up. The fifth was the only frame where English Valleys had traffic on the basepaths. With one down, Addison Westfall was hit by a pitch, then, trying to sacrifice her to second, Maddie Mikesell laid down a perfect bunt that proved to be the Bears only hit on the night. Facing a two out, two runners in scoring position jam, Goodwin righted the ship by striking out Kaley Axmear to end the threat. From that point on there were no baserunners of any kind for either side. Goodwin sat down the final six she saw in order, including four on strikes. After the game, Goodwin talked about her night in the circle and Macy Fisch her game winning hit. Goodwin said, “Last year when we played them here for our second round game I struck out the first 12 so I wanted to at least do that this time. The umpire was giving me some spots tonight and I found them. When I have my team behind me, I can do anything. My goal in the fifth was to strike the last batter out when they had people on base. I went to my go to pitch and it worked.”
Fisch said, “I knew the first pitch was going to be a strike and I knew we needed to score. I really wanted to move the runner and she ended up scoring. I have been a starter since eighth grade so I wasn’t really nervous. I was happy that she scored and we got the run.”
Goodwin went the distance, striking out 18 Bears, giving up just one hit. Only five balls were put in play against her all night. Hits for Sigourney came from Moore, Fisch and Aller. Marsh took the tough loss for EV, she went all six innings, surrendering just three hits, one run, walking one and striking out 10. With the win, Sigourney is now 23-8 on the year and moves to the class 1A regional semifinals Friday at Schafer Field against North Mahaska. The Bears wrap up their season at 14-13.