Last season, the Goshen Eagles lost one game away from advancing to the state finals.

This season, while only the opposing team changed, the story was the same.

After falling to American Christian Academy in the third round earlier on Saturday, the Eagles could not rebound and in its next game, fell to Horseshoe Bend High School, 7-1, ending the team’s season in the process.

“We had a chance early to take the momentum in the game,” Hughes said. “But base running mistakes really hurt us.

The Eagles were able to get a one-run lead in the first, however, it could have been more as GHS filled the bases with one out, however could not get anything done.

“We could have been up by three of four runs after the first but mistakes cost us,” Hughes added. “We weren’t able to push the runners across the plate today.”

The Generals were able to get on the board two innings later, as it score two runs off of Alli Warrick, who was starting her fourth-straight game.

HBHS would add another run in the bottom of the fourth when Morgan McDaniel hit a Warrick pitch over the fence.

The big inning for the Generals happened in the bottom of the fifth when it scored four runs on Warrick, making it a 7-1 game.

Warrick lasted five and a third innings, giving up nine hits and six runs.

The Eagles’ offense was unable to do much after the first inning, however Rachel Senn was productive in the season finale, going 3-3 at the plate with two doubles and an RBI.

While Hughes said she believes fatigue did not play a role in the Eagles’ losses on Saturday, she did think something else hurt her team.

“I think we were trying to hard (in game two) and we committed a lot of errors because of it.

“(Horseshoe Bend) was able to score some runs off of us and we just fell a part,” the coach said. “It’s hard to get back in the game when a team has a lot of momentum.”

Even though GHS was unable to make good on its goal to advance to the state tournament, Hughes said there future looks bright for the Eagles.

“We knew we had a good chance at making it to state this season,” Hughes said. “We knew the girls we had this season were talented enough – but we just couldn’t get it done today.

“Overall, we had a good year. We were able to develop a lot of young girls and we have everyone coming back next season,” she added.