BRIGHTON, Mich. - The 2023 GC softball season got underway on Friday morning as the Leafs played in the indoor Legacy Center in Brighton, Michigan. Goshen lost the first game 8-0 to Concordia (Mich.) in five innings and lost 4-0 against Lawrence Tech in the second game.
In game one, Paige Anderson allowed just one hit on the mound for the Cardinals in five innings pitched.
Kyra Wilson was the lone Maple Leaf to connect - hitting a leadoff single through the left side to start the second inning. Anderson struck out five batters and had two batters fly out and eight ground out.
The Concordia offense got a runner to third in the first, but Goshen freshman starter
Esme Pico struck out her final batter of the inning to keep the game scoreless. The Cardinals got on the board in the second when Payton Lewis tripled to right center, scoring two runners. Concordia added five more runs from some powerful extra-base hitting in the fourth. They had two singles, two doubles, and a triple in the inning. With an eighth run in the bottom of the seventh, Concordia won by mercy rule 8-0.
Pico struck out two and walked two in 4.1 innings pitched. Shannon McAllinden and Sarah Tyrell had half of Concordia's 12 hits.
The Maple Leafs faced another dominant pitcher when they took on Lawrence Tech in the second game of the day. Clover Brandt threw 12 strikeouts for the Blue Devils, allowing no earned runs in seven innings. Goshen had four hits, all of which were singles. Shortstop
Carissa Fillingame provided two of them, and
Alyssa McDonald and
Mckenzie Richardson each had one.
Lawrence Tech scored in the first as Gloriana Su'a hit an RBI single to right. They left five runners on base in the second and third, but Su'a converted again at the plate in the fourth with another single, this time bringing in two runs. Then in the fifth, Hailey Hack hit a line-drive homer to center field to make it 4-0.
The Maple Leafs now have 17 days to make adjustments before heading to Melbourne, Florida, for ten games over five days. The next opponent is Michigan-Dearborn for a doubleheader at the USSSA Space Coast Complex on Monday, February 27, at 4:00 pm.
