A new season of high school softball is getting underway, and many eyes will be on the action in Keokuk County this summer as the Sigourney Savages take the diamond. The defending South Iowa Cedar League champions will be searching for their third trip to the state tournament in the last four years.
The Savages are likely to be ranked a preseason top-five team in Class 1A after winning 27 games last season and taking the eventual champion North Linn to extra innings in the state quarterfinals.
Most of the roster that has powered Sigourney to a combined 76 wins the last three years is back, including the first team all-state battery of senior pitcher Carly Goodwin and junior catcher Josephine Moore.
Goodwin might be the best all-around player in the state. The University of Northern Iowa commit had the lowest earned-run average in all of Iowa at a minuscule 0.19 last summer while also piling up 325 strikeouts in just under 145 innings pitched, the second-most punch-outs in the state across all classes.
Goodwin has also proven to be a phenomenal hitter, leading the Savages in total hits in 2023 while posting a .433 batting average, nine doubles, three home runs, 41 runs batted in and 33 runs scored.
Moore is just as potent with the bat, hitting a team-best .460 as a sophomore with 12 doubles, a homer and 42 RBI. But Sigourney head coach Shelly Streigle tells KCII Sports that there’s no doubt it’s the connection between Moore behind the plate and Goodwin in the circle that gives their team a chance to be special.
“Jo is fantastic to have behind the plate,” Streigle says. “[She is] very game knowledgeable, and actually, Carly and Jo, sometime last year, started calling their own games, and that just took a huge pressure off me in the dugout. That gives them more control of their own game, and Jo knows what’s working for Carly, and they can work together to get the best result.”
While important hitters like all-state outfielder Rain Barthelman and infielder Courtney Hemsley have graduated, a duo that combined scored nearly 60 runs, the Savages will still be as deep as any lineup in the state behind Goodwin and Moore.
Sophomore Kenzi VanDenHeuvel also returns for the Savages after a huge previous season at the plate, batting .456 with 13 doubles, a triple, four home runs, 32 runs scored and a team-high 48 runs driven in.
Senior Erin Dawson hit .415 with 12 extra-base hits and 29 RBI last summer, while junior Ava Fisch tied Barthelman for a team high with 41 runs scored and had a .329 average, 10 doubles and 29 RBI.
Both were key pieces in a lineup that had the third-best batting average in Class 1A and scored the seventh-most runs. Sigourney hopes for a similarly spectacular season when they start the 2024 schedule Monday at Belle Plaine.