For the first time in team history, Sigourney Savage softball will play for a state championship. Sixth-ranked Sigourney defeated number-seven Southeast Warren 6-1 last night in the Class 1A state semifinals in Fort Dodge to punch their ticket to the title game.
The Savages jumped out to the initial lead after junior Ava Fisch led off the bottom of the first inning with a single and scored on a a sacrifice fly by junior Josephine Moore.
Sigourney would build on their lead in the fifth when, after senior Carly Goodwin led off the inning with a double, Moore stepped to the plate and bashed her 11th home run of the season to push the advantage to 3-0.
Senior Erin Dawson reached on a base hit and came around to score on an error later in the inning, and while Southeast Warren got a run back in the top of the sixth, a two-run single by Dawson in the bottom half put the Savages in the driver’s seat.
From there, Goodwin would polish off her 90th career pitching victory, finishing a complete game with just two hits and three walks allowed as well as nine strikeouts. Dawson finished the night with two total hits to lead the lineup.
After the win, Sigourney head coach Shelly Streigle told KCII Sports that everything came together for a team that was always capable of big things.
“I knew these guys had it in them from Day One at practice,” Streigle said. “Actually, I knew it at the end of last year [that] they had it in them, and they worked so hard in the off-season, and they deserve every bit of this.”
Moore said her team is proving it can come up with big at-bats in the biggest games of the year.
“This week we’ve really shown that we can string hits together and get our bats going,” Moore said, “so I really think, if we can be disciplined at the plate and be aggressive, we can do this.”
The Savages have now won 11 of their last 12 games to improve to 25-7 and will next take on top-ranked Martensdale-St Marys for the Class 1A state title tomorrow evening. You can hear Sigourney softball go for a state championship tomorrow on KCII starting with pregame coverage at 7 p.m.