The Sigourney Savages are headed back to the state softball tournament after thrilling 2-1 victory in extra innings against Wapello last night in the Class 1A Region 8 final.

Two of the state’s best pitchers engaged in a brilliant pitcher’s duel, as both Sigourney’s Carly Goodwin and Wapello’s Ada Boysen blanked the opposing lineups throughout regulation.

Wapello would break the scoreless tie after eighth-grader Mila Jordan came up with a two-out base hit in the top of the eighth and came around to score when Boysen clobbered a triple.

Eighth-grader Ella Bruns led off the bottom of the eighth with a triple but would still be standing on third base with two outs. Luckily, junior teammate Dani Aller hit a rocket off the Wapello shortstop and saved the Savages’ season with an infield single that drove in Bruns.

The game would remain tied at 1 all the way until the bottom of the 11th. Amiya Smallwood reached for Sigourney on an error with one out, stole second base and then moved to third on a ground-ball out by fellow senior Ava Fineran.

Bruns would come back up with two out, and the youngster would come up with her biggest swing of the season, rifiling a base hit back up the middle to give the Savages a walk-off win.

Goodwin and junior Josephine Moore joined Bruns in having multiple hits for Sigourney, but Goodwin’s main contribution was another dominant pitching win.

The senior allowed just seven hits and one walk over 10 innings while racking up a season-high 21 strikeouts. Boysen was equally brilliant in the circle for Wapello, also giving up seven hits and a walk while striking out 17.

After the game, head coach Shelly Streigle told KCII Sports that, as the game stretched on, nobody in her dugout in black and gold blinked, with Goodwin leading the way.

“She did her job,” Streigle said, “and, thankfully, Ella came through and did her job too. We work on that all the time, and she did exactly what [she] needed to do, and Carly stayed real calm. She came to the huddle right before the bottom of that inning and said, ‘Ladies, let’s not let their 1, 2 and 3 [hitters] get up to bat.’ It was awesome.”

The Savages improve to 23-7 and clinch back-to-back seasons with a trip to state, as well as the third appearance at the Class 1A championships in the last four years. Sigourney’s opponent in this Tuesday night’s state quarterfinals will be announced later this week.