Gowanda Small Town Times

Photo courtesy of GCS Athletics Dept. The Gowanda Varsity softball team got together for a group photo after winning the 2023 NY State Championship in Moriches, NY.

On Saturday, June 10, the Gowanda Varsity played in the NYSPHYAA Class C Championship game against S. S. Seward Institute. The game was played on Long Island at Moriches, NY. For the second time in two days of finals competition Gowanda was designated as the home team.

It was everything you would expect a State Finals game to be, a low-scoring contest where every mistake would be significant. In the early going the pitchers were in full control of things keeping the game scoreless up to the bottom of the 2nd inning. Gowanda opened their half of the inning with a Jada Geiger double and an Ella Luther single before the first out was registered. Both runners came home on a Hailey Christopher single just over he pitcher’s head into centerfield. That gave Gowanda an early 2-0 lead. Two more scoreless innings followed before Seward made its big move. The 5th inning saw a defensive slump by Gowanda that allowed a Seward rally. Two walks and four singles set up Seward to pull in front 3-2. They would move that to 4-2 before Gowanda rallied back in the 6th inning. Gao:Wisa:S “Wassy” Stevens led off with a single. She advanced on a sacrifice fly before Geiger blasted a shot into centerfield for a single. A walk put Luther on 1st loading the bases with one out. A Holland Browning resulted in a failed attempt to catch the runner going home followed by an overthrow of 2nd base. That allowed two Gowanda runs to score. Browning later scored on a Kailyn Farner single. That brought the score to 6-4 with Gowanda in the lead heading into the 7th inning. The Gowanda defense got two of the final three outs quickly before a last gasp effort for Seward. A walk and single put the potential tying runs on base. That was shut down quickly with a hit to Lily Bobseine at 1st base for an easy final out.

Leading the Gowanda ofense were Jada Geiger (2 runs, 3 hits including a double), Ella Luther (2 runs, 1 hit), Holland Browning (1 run, 1 hit, 2 RBI) and Hailey Christopher (1 hit, 2 RBI). Also figuring prominently were Kailyn Farner (1 hit, 1 RBI) and Gao:Wisa:S “Wassy” Stevens (1 run). Pitching for Gowanda, Addison Kota gave up 6 hits and 6 walks while securing 7 strikeouts.