Mount Vernon puts the finishing touch on the Wamac East softball title

MOUNT VERNON — Needed one. Got one.

Hayden Gookin pitched a 10-strikeout, three-hit shutout and helped her own cause with a pair of RBIs to lead Class 3A third-ranked Mount Vernon to a 2-0 win over No. 11 West Delaware in the first game of a Wamac Conference softball doubleheader Tuesday night at the Van Metre Softball Complex.

Despite West Delaware’s 3-2 victory in Game 2, the Mustangs wear the Wamac East Division crown.

“It means a lot. Not necessarily as much as a state title would mean, but it’s good to get this as we get ready for the postseason,” Gookin said.

“I’d like us to score more runs, but I think we’re in a good spot right now.”

The Mustangs (25-11 overall, 16-6 Wamac) finish one game ahead of the Hawks (21-11, 13-7) in the East Division.

“Two good games,” Mount Vernon Coach Robin Brand said. “Things don’t rattle this team much. That’s a team that scored 18 runs (in a doubleheader sweep of Solon on Monday). We held them to three.”

Mount Vernon struck right away, in the bottom of the first inning. Sophia Patten led off with a double, moved to third on Olivia Haverback’s flyout, then raced home on Gookin’s popout to shallow right.

Gookin’s RBI double plated Haverback in the sixth.

West Delaware had the tying runs aboard in the top of the seventh, but Gookin (19-4) shut the door with three straight strikeouts.

“It definitely wasn’t my best game, but it was still pretty good,” she said. “All things are going up right now.”

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Both games were crisp. Hawks sophomore Ava Hartman (10-3) held Mount Vernon to four hits in the nightcap, just one through the first five innings.

“This will help my confidence,” Hartman said. “I know the team has my back. I just try to stay out of my own head.

“I feel that we can be dangerous (in the postseason). Our offense and defense and working together, and everybody is picking each other up.”

RBI singles by Hartman and Katie Kass broke a scoreless tie in the fourth inning, then an error allowed the Hawks to tally an insurance run in the sixth.

That third run turned out to be decisive, because Rylee Rasmussen’s double got Mount Vernon within 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth.

The Mustangs didn’t get a baserunner in the seventh.

Mount Vernon 2-2, West Delaware 0-3

At Mount Vernon

GAME 1

West Delaware 000 000 0 — 0 3 0

Mount Vernon 100 001 x — 2 6 1

Adalen Keener and Susie Funke. Hayden Gookin and Brynlee Bettcher. W — Gookin (19-4). L — Keener (3-1).

GAME 2

West Delaware 000 201 0 — 3 7 1

Mount Vernon 000 002 0 — 2 4 1

Ava Hartman and Susie Funke. Olivia Haverback and Brynlee Bettcher. W — Hartman (10-3). L — Haverback (6-7).

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com