Goshen's Ashleigh Campbell thrived in the leadoff spot for the Lady Warriors this season, scoring over 30 runs and posting an on-base percentage of .556.

By Garth Shanklin
Sports Editor

Goshen's Ashleigh Campbell thrived in the leadoff spot for the Lady Warriors this season, scoring over 30 runs and posting an on-base percentage of .556.

With every team in any sport, there comes a point in the season where the team faces some kind of adversity. Be it an injury to one of the squad’s best players or a losing streak, something is going to happen that will test a team’s mettle.

For the Goshen Lady Warriors softball team, their test came earlier this year. The squad dropped three consecutive games to Western Brown, Amelia and Batavia and found themselves with a choice to make. Head coach Eric Campbell said at that point, the team met to figure out their next step.

“We had a team meeting at that point on the direction of how we wanted the season to finish up,” Campbell said. “Everyone did a lot of looking at themselves and how they could improve and what they could do better for the team, and I think that was the turning point.”

Entering play on May 17, the team had lost just one of their last eight games, a 4-3 decision to Clinton Massie. Campbell said his team has played a difficult schedule this year, but they have been able to pull off victories against tougher opponents.

“We played some really tough teams,” Campbell said. “We lost to Clinton Massie by one run and they were undefeated, so it was a good game. We beat Amelia one time, Western Brown once. I think we did OK, obviously it would’ve been nice to have two or three fewer losses in the column.”

Two of the team’s losses came at the hands of the Batavia Lady Bulldogs, who finished the season with six wins and 10 losses.

“We had our ups and downs. We had a couple disappointing losses to Batavia. We beat them last year both times. Obviously we fixed those issues in the sectional tournament.”

The Lady Warriors got their chance at revenge in the opening round of the postseason, as the team faced Batavia at home. Goshen rolled over the Lady Bulldogs, winning the game 5-1. Campbell said he didn’t think the higher-seeded Lady Warriors were under more pressure than Batavia.

“I explained to the team, I said it’s very difficult to beat somebody three times in a row,” Campbell said. “I think the pressure was on Batavia more so than it was on us because it’s about making adjustments. I told the team that they were going to come in feeling very confident and doing the same thing they’ve been doing. We’re the ones that had to adjust or else we weren’t going to win again.”

The team kept that momentum rolling into their next tournament game, a contest against Wyoming. Campbell said the team didn’t know much about their opponent, but the pitching carried the squad to victory.

“The past three games, going back to the Reading game, our last game of the season, we really figured out some things on the pitching side,” Campbell said. “She’s caught fire. She threw a five-hitter against Batavia, a two-hitter against Wyoming…We knew nothing against Wyoming. We respected them, they were a good team, but we didn’t know what to expect.”

Pitching can only take a team so far, however. If the team doesn’t score runs, it doesn’t matter what happens in the circle. Goshen finds themselves with a very potent and patient lineup, led by Ashleigh Campbell. She has scored 32 runs for the Lady Warriors this season and currently sports a .556 on-base percentage.

“She’s played softball for 10 years, and she’s a very disciplined hitter,” Campbell said. “I have quite a bit of those on the team this year. They’re not chasing bad balls, if they draw the walk, they draw the walk. Obviously they want to hit, but we’ll take what the pitcher gives us. We have hitters who can bring us around, so the key is to set the table and see how things go.”

The Lady Warriors squared off against the Western Brown Lady Broncos earlier this week with a sectional title on the line. The team’s season came to an end with a 13-3 loss to Western Brown. Goshen finished the season with a 16-7 record, 6-4 in the SBAAC.