On a historic night for Sigourney athletics, Savage baseball punched its ticket to the State Tournament Tuesday, besting Burlington Notre Dame 4-2.

Expecting to see quality pitching from the Nikes, Sigourney hitters got it, and then some. Jaxon Sadler began the night on the mound for Burlington, and caused the Savages fits. In his five innings, the senior allowed four hits, struck out seven, and held Sigourney scoreless.

Caden Clarahan kept pace on the hill with Sadler, navigating though traffic in the second and third innings, maintaining a shutout as well. Despite walking seven and hitting two, Clarahan surrendered only two runs. The first of those came in the top of the fifth on a sac fly from Eli Oleson.

Trailing for the first time, there was no wavering in the Sigourney dugout. Brady Clark led off the bottom of the fifth with a single, eventually making his way to third. After back-to-back outs, it appeared as thought the Savages would strand yet another runner, but Caden Clarahan came through clutch with an RBI-single and things were knotted at 1.

The Sigourney bats weren’t done. After a Reid Molyneux infield single, Isaac Bruns delivered a 3-run moonshot to blow the roof off the Savage dugout and put them in front 4-1. Bruns shared his approach with KCII postgame. “I was just trying to attack the at bat really early, try to take some fastball strikes. I took one a little outside, didn’t really like it. Then the next one [was a] fastball [that] came down the middle and [I] just swung at it.” All four Savage runs came against pitcher Caden Schwenker, who had allowed just three runs all season entering the contest.

Tasked with preserving a lead against the #2-ranked Nikes, Clarahan walked the leadoff hitter in the sixth who came around and made it 4-2. A subsequent blast from from Landry Haberichter seemed destined for extra bases and would have made it a one-run game, but Reid Molyneux made an acrobatic catch in deep left field to send the game to the final frame.

It was in the seventh that Sigourney called on Chase Clarahan for the final three outs. A pair of baserunners made things interesting, but a Cole McKay to Brady Clark connection sealed it for the tournament-bound Savages.

Sigourney baseball will play in the Iowa State Tournament for the first time in program history, beginning with quarterfinal action on Monday, July 22 in Carroll. As if that was not enough to celebrate, Tuesday’s win was number 300 for head coach Lee Crawford.