Sigourney Survives English Valleys Comeback Effort

NORTH ENGLISH—On June 19, the #5 ranked Sigourney Savages headed to North English for the second matchup against the English Valleys Bears. The Savages snuck out with a 3-2 victory.

The Savages started the fun early with three runs in the first inning, albeit only one of those runs was an earned run for English Valleys starting pitcher Kennedy Axmear. 

Axmear finished her day with seven innings pitched, one earned run on 11 hits and five strikeouts. Her counterpart, Sigourney senior Carly Goodwin, finished her day with seven innings pitched, one earned run on four hits, three walks and 14 strikeouts. Goodwin pushed her season strikeout total to 216, and currently sits in second for strikeouts in all classes, only four behind Erica Houge of Collins-Maxwell.

Josephine Moore knocked in the sole RBI for the Savages on the day off two doubles and a single. She has been red hot at the plate these past five conference games. She is hitting .0.615 with 8 RBIs, and had a two-home run game against Keota on June 17.

Moore spoke on what she has been seeing at the plate with, “Well I was in a slump a few weeks back, and have been practicing on taking good cuts. I came out here today and did what I needed to do.”

The Bears did not go down without a fight. Senior Kennedy Axmear smacked her ninth home run of the season in the bottom of the fourth, which is tied for fifth in Class 1A. Axmear spoke on the home run with, “Just seeing my zone. Can’t force it, just wait for it to come to me.”

The Bears felt the momentum, and continued to get quality at-bats against Goodwin. Senior Ada Mews started the fifth off with a triple, but the Bears were unable to bring her home. 

In the bottom of the sixth, the Bears were patient at the plate and loaded the bases. They cut the deficit to one with a walk, and pushed the winning run to second base. Senior Carly Goodwin, with her back against the wall, delivered a ball that was sent to deep centerfield. Senior Amiya Smallwood quickly tracked the ball, and made the play to secure the 3-2 victory over English Valleys.

Sigourney Head Coach Shelly Striegle spoke on her team, which has a lot of young players, getting some playoff type experience with, “I think what I saw from my team was that iron sharpens iron. We made a few mistakes, we learned from those mistakes and we fought through those situations to finish up the game.”

Junior catcher Josephine Moore shared a similar sentiment to Coach Striegle with, “It feels good. We needed to win. She is a good pitcher, so we can’t hang our heads on that. We just needed to come out here and do what we did. It was a tough game, but we pulled it through.” 

English Valleys Head Coach Steve Hester described what he saw from his team with, “One of the things Coach Mews and I strive for is to get the girls better as the season goes on. You know the big difference between the first matchup and this one is being able to put a bunt down. We worked on a few different things here, and tried a different approach on how we were going to attack Carly (Goodwin). It was definitely a playoff atmosphere with two good ball clubs. It was a lot of fun.”

This game was not only determined by the starting players on the field, but also everyone on the bench. The uproar for a hit, strikeout or any kind of highlight play could be heard across North English. Both teams had adrenaline coursing through their veins, and the benches were erupting like vesuvius. Coach Striegle spoke on the effect this has for the team with, “Everybody on the bench is just as important as everyone on the field. Their job and role might be different, their job is more emotional than physical. The girls out on the field need it just as much as they need to hit the ball.”