GHS season comes to end at regional

Published 12:00 am Monday, May 10, 2010

The Goshen softball team entered the 2010 Super Regional winners of six-games in a row.

Despite a strong start on the first day of the tournament, the Eagles’ bid for a state tournament bid and season came to a sudden stop on day two.

GHS made the short twenty-minute trip to the Troy Sportsplex to join 47 other teams looking to keep their seasons alive.

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After a perfect day on Friday thanks to win a 3-2 win over Thorsby and 10-0 win over Pickens County, the Eagles began to believe it would avenge last season’s disappointment in the regional tournament.

As it turned out, GHS would finish in the exact same place it did a year earlier, as the team would lose back-to-back games against American Christian Academy and Horseshoe Bend High School in the third and fourth rounds.

“We knew we had a good chance at making it to (the state tournament) this season,” head coach Dee Hughes said on Saturday, after her team lost 7-1 to Horseshoe Bend in the compensation championship round.

“We knew the girls we had this season were talented enough, but we just couldn’t get it done today.”

GHS lost to the eventual Class 2A winners, ACA, by a score of 9-1.

In all four games the Eagles’ played, Alli Warrick started in the pitching circle.

The sophomore finished with a 2-2 overall record in the tournament, pitching 19 innings while giving up 10 runs on 19 hits and striking out 12.

At the plate for the GHS, the team had three of its stars leading the way throughout the tournament, as junior Amanda Griggs, sophomore Rachel Senn and freshman Shelby Vinson all had a productive weekend.

Both Griggs and Vinson finished with five hits and two RBIs during the four games while Senn finished with four hits, a home run and three RBIs.

On Monday, Hughes reflected on the Eagles’ latest season.

“We had a good season,” she said.

“I think we had a good showing (in the tournament) but when you look back at it, it’s kind of hard.”

“We couldn’t adjust to pitching, and that really got us. We couldn’t get out bats going in the second day,” the coach added.

Through both the wins and the losses, there was also a large crowd on hand for GHS and that is something Hughes said she was very proud of.

“It was great to see the community come out and support the girls,” she said.

“All of these girls worked hard, and everyone that was there knew that.”

Now, the team begins to set its focus on the 2011 season and with it, something the Eagles didn’t have this past season – seniors.

“This season, I think a lack of senior leadership hurt us a little bit,” Hughes said.

“This team really pulled together towards the end, but I think senior leadership would have made a difference,” the coach said.

There will be three seniors on next year’s squad in Griggs, Kaitlin Thomas and Niyoka Slater.