It was a historic night for the South Central Cougars.
The Cougars (26-3) held off a late rally by the Griffins of Father McGivney (31-7) on their way to a 4-2 victory in the state championship game on the campus of ISU in Normal.
SC got on the board first as Chase Thompson, who went 6-for-10 on the day, would score in the third inning.
Spencer Johannes got the start and was dominant for most of his start. The left hander worked 6 innings allowing 6 hits with 9 strikeouts. He held that 1-0 lead until the top of the fifth with McGivney would tie the game on an RBI single. The Cougars answered right back with 3 more of their own in the fifth to take a 4-1 lead.
The Griffins would load the bases with nobody out in the last inning, and Coach Curt Jones went to Senior ace Chase Dodson who had 21 pitches left from his previous outing earlier in the day. Chase got a groundball to shortstop Aiden Dodson who stepped on the bag and threw to first for a double play. Dodson then got Gabe Smith to groundout to Thompson at 2nd base to begin the celebration in front of a big crowd from Marion County.
Following the game talking to WJBD/WSIQ, Dodson said “It all happened so fast, like in a snap of a finger. And now we are finally state champs in Class 1a and will be for the rest of our lives.”
Head coach Curt Jones said, “I saw so many of my former players in the front row. They have been supporting us and following us from the beginning and it was just awesome to see.”
Dodson was the winning pitcher in the Cougars dominant opening game win over Mt Pulaski 11-5. The game was tight 4-2 heading into the sixth before the Cougars exploded for 7 runs in the inning. Sebastian Cowger drove in 3, Thompson and Chase Dodson 2 each with RBI also from Aiden, Beau Jollif and Sam Rubin. Andrew Magnus also had a good game going 2-3 with 2 runs scored.
A parade through the District will be held today. Starting at 6pm, the team will go through St Peter, to Farina, through Kinmundy and into Alma before returning to Lions Field in Kinmundy for a reception later today.
Newark won the 3rd place game over Mt Pulaski 6-2.
