Goshen holds on late in win
Published 3:00 am Friday, April 21, 2017
It was a battle of Eagles when Pleasant Home and Goshen battled Thursday afternoon. After five scoreless innings it was Goshen who came out on top 7-5.
The win for the Eagles continues a trend of strong softball according to head coach Amy Warrick.
“It hasn’t been easy,” Warrick said. “I feel like on offense we are taking better at-bats. I feel like we are getting better at the right time. I am proud of their effort today.”
Sydni Garrett got the start for the Eagles and pitched all seven innings and allowed five runs.
“I was proud of Sydni,” Warrick said. “She looked good in the circle and she had good speed. She was hitting her spots well; I was proud. She got hit hard, but didn’t let it emotionally effect her.”
The Eagles finished with nine hits led by Kelsey Gibson and Lydia Harrison, who each had two hits.
Both teams squandered chances of getting on the board early Thursday evening. A total of five base runners were stranded between the two teams, including two runners by Goshen in the bottom of the first.
The trend continued in the third when Pleasant Home loaded the bases on two singles and a hit batter, but Garrett battled back and picked up her fourth strikeout of the game to get out of the inning.
Both pitchers shut down the offense in the first five innings of the game, allowing just nine combined hits. In the sixth, Pleasant Home finally broke through for the game’s first runs. The first four batters of the inning reached on three singles and the visiting Eagles were able to take the first lead of the game at 3-0 heading into the bottom of the sixth.
Goshen immediately answered in the bottom half of the inning. They benefited early in the inning on a wild pitch and a couple of errors and by inning’s end held a 7-3 lead. The Eagles cut their deficit to one after they got back-to-back RBI singles by Henderson and Calhoun. They tied the score when Cambell came around to score on an error. Gibson had the big hit of the inning when she hit a triple with the bases loaded to give the Eagles a 6-3 lead. Garrett drove in Gibson on a single for the inning’s final run.
Pleasant Home scored a pair of runs in the seventh, but Garrett forced a fly out to center to end the game.
The Eagles will return to action today when they travel to take on Andalusia.