Goshen softball finished 1-1 in pool play on the first day of the Troy softball tournament Friday night, defeating Highland Home 5-2 and falling to Carroll 3-0 in the nightcap.

In their first game of the day, Goshen was able to break a 0-0 deadlock in the later innings of the game, as the Lady Eagles’ bats came alive for five runs to clinch the first contest of their double header.

“It felt good to see some of these girls get a hit,” Goshen head coach Amy Warrick said. “We needed that. We needed a little confidence, so that was good.”

Kati Thomas got the start on the mound for Goshen, holding Highland Home scoreless through the first two innings while striking out four batters.

But with Thomas stonewalling Highland Home’s batters, the Lady Eagles’ offense struggled to produce offense through the first two innings of the game as Highland Home’s Katlyn Sport had her way with Goshen early on.

In the third inning, with the game still scoreless, Goshen’s Casey Allen smacked a 2-RBI single to center, bringing home two runners to give Goshen the 2-0 advantage.

And immediately after, Lizzy Galloway added another run after an RBI triple scored Allen.

But in the bottom of the inning, Thomas walked in a Highland Home batter after loading the bases, forcing Warrick to put Galloway in for relief.

After walking in a run on her first batter, Galloway struck out two-straight batters to end the inning, but not before Highland Home narrowed the lead to 3-2.

In the very next inning, however, Goshen responded when Carmen Kelly hit a 2-RBI single to give the Lady Eagles a comfortable 5-2 lead.

And in the bottom of the inning, Galloway slammed the door shut on Highland Home, striking out the final two batters she faced.

“Kati did a great job,” Warrick said. “We got three solid innings out of Kati, and then Lizzy came in and did her job. She was our senior on the mound.”

In the nightcap, Goshen couldn’t recover from an early 2-0 deficit, as Carroll shutout the Lady Eagles 3-0 in five innings of play.

The story of the game for Goshen was runners stranded on base.

The Lady Eagles were effective early in the game reaching base, but couldn’t bring any of those runners in as Carroll took control early in the game with a big second inning.

In the bottom of the first inning, Goshen was able to load the bases after Kelly and Fran Warrick reached on singles and Galloway was walked.

But Carroll’s defense stood tall, as the next two Lady Eagles struck out, ending the threat in the first inning.

In the second inning, with Galloway once again on the mound for relief, Carroll took its first and only lead of the game, driving in two runs to take an early 2-0 lead.

Goshen did its best to battle back, with runners reaching base in the final three innings, but the Lady Eagles failed to put any runs on the board as Carroll added one more run in the fourth inning to clinch the game.

“I think we’re working on it (mistakes),” Warrick said. “The bats are going, but we just need a little confidence right now to get our bats going and kind of get in the groove again.”

Goshen advances to single-elimination play Saturday afternoon with the first round of games beginning at 12:30 p.m.