A marvelous softball season for the Sigourney Savages had reached the state’s grandest stage, and eighth-ranked Sigourney is now only a few wins away from the ultimate prize as the Savages start the Class 1A state championships tonight by taking on number-two North Linn in the quarterfinals, a game you can hear on KCII.

Sigourney is 26-4 and has won nine straight, largely thanks to the dominance of pitcher Carly Goodwin. The junior’s minuscule 0.22 earned-run average is the lowest in the state across all classes. Goodwin has yielded less than 50 total base runners and piled up a whopping 304 strikeouts in 130 innings of work.

But the Savages can pile up the runs when they need it. Sigourney is the sixth-highest scoring team in Class 1A and has the third-highest team batting average. Along with Goodwin, freshman Kenzi VanDenHeuvel and sophomore Josephine Moore also have batting averages well over .450 and have helped the Savages put up 1A’s third-most runs batted in. Head coach Shelly Streigle tells KCII Sports all the ingredients are in place to create a winning recipe.

“We can really go [to state] and do what we need to do as a team,” Streigle says. “We can accomplish great things if [the players] just keep their mind focused on what we’re doing and stay humble.”

Sigourney takes on a North Linn team that won the state championship two years ago and is 36-6 this season and has scored the most runs in the state. The Savages battle the Lynx in the 1A state quarterfinals, and you can hear all the action from Fort Dodge this evening on all KCII stations and online at KCIIradio.com, with pregame coverage beginning at 6:30.