Navy-Gold Series Puts A Wrap On Georgia Southern Softball Fall Season
10/27/2020 1:00:00 PM | Softball
STATESBORO - The Georgia Southern softball squad wrapped up the 2020 Fall season by competing in the Navy-Gold World Series over the weekend. Three days of games between the Navy squad, captained by sophomore Aaliyah Garcia, and the Gold squad, captained by junior Faith Shirley, finished on Sunday at Beautiful Eagle Field.
The end of the Series also marked the end of the 45-day Fall practice season for Georgia Southern softball. Head coach Kim Dean was pleased with what she saw from her team despite being the earliest the Eagles have started the Fall season during her tenure.
"I think our freshman came in having to go at game speed faster than we ever had before," Coach Dean said. "The game is really fast, as anyone going into college of changing levels can tell you. The competitive juices took over for the coaching staff, and we were just really excited being a team again. Game IQ is really huge for our team, and we have very intelligent athletes on the field. And where we were at this time last year, to this year, we are so much further along. I'm encouraged at our team really starting to come together."
The Series featured captains and their GMs drafting their teams, then scripting practices leading up to the three days of competition. So how did Coach Dean think the players handled the Series?
"I think it was really good," Coach Dean said. "They had a lot of fun with the external part of it. Picking lineups, creating a team, writing practices - they really ran with it and had fun. It was also fun seeing their personalities, the way each team took on the personality of their leader. The practices were completely different between the two teams. Even the way they each wrote their lineups was unique. It was a very competitive series and it was good to see how they adapted to some of the coaching issues we face on a daily basis."
When the scores were all tallied after the weekend, Team Navy took the series. Garcia was named the MVP of the series as well.
"Team Navy didn't do anything incredibly different than Team Gold," Coach Dean said. But Team Navy just had a few more timely hits to get some runs on the board. I believe both teams competed hard, did a great job bouncing back from any mistakes and used the innings we played to build their teams."
The Eagles now turn their attention to the Spring 2021 season, which is still up in the air as to what exactly it will look like. What were some of the takeaways that Coach Dean had from her team after the Fall?
"It just took some of the cobwebs off," Coach Dean said. "We were just really excited to complete the Fall. Just being out there, competing, is going to help us in the Spring. Ultimately, the Fall was about getting back to remembering the small things - fighting for one another, giving all the effort you can, and learning how to be back out on the field. It's been a long break. And we started our 45-day cycle earlier than we ever have because we wanted to be back as a team as fast as we could be. I'm so appreciative that we were able to go for the full time, to allow us to get back together and start playing the game we all love again."
