GOTHENBURG- It was a wild Monday night as the Gothenburg Swedes hosted the Cozad Haymakers in the C-9 Subdistrict Final. The Dawson County Rivalry saw this one go down to the wire, with Gothenburg edging Cozad 5-4 to clinch a district final.
Gothenburg played at 3:00 PM Monday afternoon, taking care of business 14-2 over Minden. Cozad had to play back to back games though, after beating Southern Valley/Alma 7-0 just thirty minutes before the final game started with the Swedes.
The Swedes came out firing on all cylinders. Junior pitcher Hannah Devlin retired the first six batters she saw, on four strikeouts through the first two innings. Gothenburg scored three runs in the bottom of the first off of two hits. Senior Chloe Daharsh had a two run single, and junior Wren Herrick had a sacrifice fly to score those three first inning runs. Gothenburg kept it going in the second, with senior Taysia Holbein knocking in two runs off of a triple. The Swedes led 5-0 after the first two innings.
After it was all Gothenburg through the first two innings, Cozad was able to weather the storm and get back in it. Those five runs that the Swedes scored in the first two innings would be it scoring wise for Gothenburg on the night. The Haymakers got the scoring going in the third off of a RBI single by senior Kiley Porter. Sophomore pitcher Madison Sayer replaced junior Taylor Howell with no outs in the first, and after the rough first and second inning, Sayer shut the Swedes down. She forced them to leave three runners on base in the third and fifth to keep the game within striking distance.
The fifth is where the Haymakers were able to come back. They scored three runs on four hits to make it a one run ball game. Senior Madison Rowley knocked in a RBI on a double, and Howell knocked in two runs on a single to close the gap. Just like that, the Haymakers had cut the lead to 5-4.
Devlin answered with authority though, and shut Cozad down. After a struggling fifth inning, she would close out the game retiring the last six batters, and giving Gothenburg the 5-4 victory.
For Cozad, they scored four runs on six hits with one error and two left on base. Sayer went six innings, two runs, six hits, three strikeouts, and three walks. Hitting wise, sophomore McKenzie Munster went 2-3 with a double, single, and two runs scored.
For Gothenburg, they scored five runs on seven hits with no errors and eight left on base. Devlin went all seven innings, allowing four runs on six hits with eight strikeouts and no walks. Holbein finished 2-2 with a triple and a double, two walks, two RBI’s, and a run scored.
With the win, Gothenburg will now host a district final on either Friday or Saturday. That will be a best of three series to decide who will go to state.
Listen to the game here.
