By Sam Parsons
Last night was a historic night for the Sigourney Savages.
The Sigourney baseball team traveled to Fairfield to face off against the Burlington Notre Dame Nikes in search of their first state tournament appearance ever, and the Sigourney softball team hosted the Wapello Arrows in pursuit of their second consecutive trip to the big dance, and their third in four years; and both teams were successful.
In Fairfield, the Savages were engaged in a pitchers’ duel between Jaxon Sadler of Burlington Notre Dame and Caden Clarahan of Sigourney. The game was scoreless after four full innings before the Nikes got on the board first in the top of the 5th with a 1-0 lead. However, the Savages answered quickly: Brady Clark led the bottom of the 5th off with a single and was later brought in to score with a game-tying RBI single from Caden Clarahan. After Reid Molyneux reached on an error, the stage was set for junior Isaac Bruns, who came through with a huge 3-run home run to right field, taking a 4-1 lead.
From there, the Savages were able to preserve the win: Caden Clarahan finished the night with 6.0 innings of work in which he allowed 2 earned runs on 1 base hit and 8 walks, notching 5 strikeouts. Chase Clarahan entered in the top of the 7th and collected the save, allowing no runs in 1.0 inning. The Savages punched their ticket to state with a 4-2 win.
Back in Sigourney, the softball team was locked into a war of attrition with Wapello. Carly Goodwin of Sigourney and Ada Boysen of Wapello were going toe-to-toe in a pitchers’ duel that saw the two teams combine for 40 strikeouts on the night. It was a 0-0 game after 7 innings, prompting extras, and that was when the scoring started: Wapello got the first run across in the top of the 8th, but the Savages matched it in the bottom of the frame. Two more scoreless innings set up the 11th, where Goodwin once again held the Arrows silent and gave the Savages a chance to walk it off. They did just that, scoring the winning run in the bottom of the 11th to clinch a 2-1 victory and another trip to Fort Dodge.
The Savages’ state tournament runs next week can be heard on KMZN 740/99.5/103.9 and radiokmzn.com, with Sam Parsons and Josh Clubb on the call.
