We’re continuing our KCII Top 10 Countdown of the biggest area high school sports stories of 2022-2023. At number 4 is Sigourney softball making the state tournament for the second time in three years.

After just missing out on back-to-back trips to the Class 1A state championships in 2022 because of a heartbreaking 7-6 loss to eventual state champ Twin Cedars in the region final, Sigourney entered the spring of 2023 with a preseason top-10 ranking and expectations of doing great things again. And the Savages lived up to the hype.

Behind an electric offense and one of the state’s most dynamic pitchers in junior Carly Goodwin, Sigourney won 16 of its first 18 games and claimed a third straight South Iowa Cedar League title.

Goodwin posted a mesmerizing 0.19 earned-run average, one of the lowest in a single season in Iowa softball history. The junior also led Class 1A in strikeouts, walks allowed and opponent batting average on her way to making first-team all-state.

Sophomore catcher Josephine Moore joined Goodwin as an all-state choice after posting a team-high .460 batting average and swatting 13 extra-base hits on her way to 42 runs batted in. Goodwin also hit .433 with nine doubles, three home runs and 41 RBI, while freshman Kenzi VanDenHeuvel’s .456 average, 13 doubles, four home runs and 48 runs driven in were key components to the eighth-highest scoring team in the state.

Shutting out the first two opponents the Savages faced in the 1A Region 8 playoffs set up a rematch with Twin Cedars in the Region 8 final July 10th. Goodwin’s RBI double in the fifth broke up a scoreless game, and even after the Sabers rallied to tie the game in the top of the sixth, Sigourney retook the lead in the bottom of the inning and went on to win 2-1 to earn the sixth state tournament bid in school history.

The Savages would be knocked off by the eventual state champs again, as eighth-ranked Sigourney fell to number-three North Linn in an extra-innings thriller in the 1A quarterfinals in Fort Dodge one week later. Despite Goodwin allowing just four hits and no earned runs over seven-and-two-thirds innings pitched while striking out 12, North Linn pushed across the game’s only run in walk-off fashion in the eighth.

Sigourney would end the season by defeating Southeast Warren 2-0 on the strength of another complete-game shutout by Goodwin and a two-run homer by junior Erin Dawson. The Savages earned a tie for fifth place in 1A and won 27 total games this spring, tied for most by the program in eight years.

The countdown of Top 10 area sports stories will continue tomorrow. Find the stories every day as they are announced at KCIIradio.com.