The Goshen Lady Eagles used a 10-run first inning, and home runs from Lizzie Galloway and Katie Thomas, to rout cross-county rival Pike County 19-5 Monday afternoon in Brundidge.

Galloway’s bomb, a shot to right center that just eked over the outfield wall, was a grand slam that capped off the scoring in the big first inning.

Thomas’ shot, a monstrous drive to straightaway left field in the third inning, plated two more runs.

Outside of the two long balls, Goshen picked up timely hitting, including five singles in the six-run third inning.

The timely hitting was something Goshen head coach Amy Warrick has been longing to see for some time.

“The best thing I saw was that we got the bats going early,” said Warrick. “We finally got it going today, but it has been coming around the last few weeks. We got some runs early, and that was the key.”

Pike County head coach Karie Striplin tipped her hat to the Goshen batters as well.

“They are a good hitting team,” said Striplin. “We saw that first hand today, one through nine in the lineup and even their bench players can swing. Kudos to them, but if we don’t commit errors and have better location with out pitches we wouldn’t have given up 19 runs.”

Pike County scratched one run across in the bottom of the first inning, and picked up three more in the second.

Chelsea Zellers, who walked to lead off the inning, scored on a Goshen error off the bat of Laken Maulden. Courtney Twiggs and Montana Brown picked up back-to-back RBI singles, scoring Payton Linzey and Maulden.

Goshen opened the top of the fifth with three straight hits, a double by Casey Allen, an RBI single from Thomas and a single off the bat of Samantha Roy. Haley Hughes picked up an RBI on a single later in the inning.

Thomas led Goshen at the plate, going 3-for-3 with a home run and three RBIs. Galloway went 1-3 with the grand slam.

Casey Allen also picked up two RBIs for Goshen.

Twiggs and Brown led the Lady Dawgs at the plate, with one RBI apiece.

As the season enters its home stretch, Warrick feels her team is getting better.

“The start of the year was strange with the weather and things,” said Warrick. “I feel like we haven’t been able to put in all the hours of work we normally do, and that has hurt us a little. The last couple of weeks have been good and I really feel like we are peeking at the right time.”

Pike County will host the Carroll Eagles on Thursday looking for a season-sweep of the 5A program.

Goshen returns to action on Tuesday against the Zion Chapel Lady Rebels. First pitch is set for 4:30 p.m in Jack.