GMC splits two amid the rainfall

Published 8:43 pm Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Raindrops kept falling on their heads, but that doesn’t mean college softball wasn’t in full swing – well, almost full – at Couch Field with the Georgia Military College Bulldogs hosting Virginia visitors representing Patrick & Henry Community College Sunday.

Though originally scheduled as a triple-header (Enterprise CC from Alabama did not attend), the Bulldogs of coach Ashley Bunn and the Patriots played two games as the rain fell off and on. Patrick & Henry won the first game 6-3, then GMC got ahead in the second game by six runs. That contest lasted until the top of the sixth, then the coaches and umpires agreed to call it a day with the 6-2 victory going to the Bulldogs.

GMC’s record for the 2025 season went to 11-10 Sunday. GCAA play for the Bulldogs did not begin the week before as originally scheduled; that was changed to March 11 when GMC played at South Georgia State College in Douglas. Today (March 12), Bunn and the Bulldogs have another non-conference doubleheader set for Couch Field against Rock Valley from Rockford, Illinois.

The Sunday rain, in fact, became most noticeable at Couch Field after the Patriots took a 2-0 lead in Game 1 on a home run from Kinzee Motley off starting pitcher Alyssa Jones. Jones pitched into the fourth inning and recorded eight strikeouts. But she also walked five and gave up five earned runs on five hits.

The Bulldog batters faced Kayla Bartley and managed only one hit through four innings. That was a first-inning single for Ansley West. In those innings Bartley only walked one and struck out three.

The Patriot offense scored big in the top of the fourth, four runs on four hits. Two of those were doubles by Motley and Greenly Elliott, who drove in two runs.

Robby Vann pitched GMC out of the inning and shut down the Patriots for the rest of the game with no walks and two strikeouts.

The Bulldogs got their second hit of the game in the fifth from Emmy Moss, but didn’t get any runs until the sixth when No. 9 hitter Emma Folds led off with a double. At the No. 1 spot, outfielder Carolyn Lehman reached on an error, and with two in scoring position Olivia Bridger, the shortstop, singled them home. Substitute batter Sophia Boutelle singled to make it a 6-3 score.

Bartley got out of the inning with no further damage and gave up just one more hit, to Moss, in the seventh.

Claire Clements started Game 2 in the circle for Bunn and went the distance with four strikeouts, four walks and five hits allowed. One of those hits went over the fence, another Motley home run that accounted for all the Patrick & Henry scoring in the fourth inning.

GMC, though, posted a 4-0 lead in the first inning drawing three walks and Lehman leading off with a base hit where she slipped on the muddy ground but made it back to the bag as the first baseman couldn’t hold the softball. West doubled for two RBI and Clements singled in one while catcher McKenzi Trull recorded a sacrifice fly.

The Bulldogs added one on an error in the home second before the Motley homer. In the bottom of the fourth, GMC scored one more as Bridger singled and came around back home.

Clements gave up two singles and walked two after the Motley home run, and the Patriots left the bases loaded in the top of the sixth.

• Rock Valley College softball, on March 7, split a doubleheader at GMC rival Gordon State, losing 5-4 and winning in five innings 10-0. Rock Valley had scheduled games earlier in the week in Florida at Gulf Coast State and Tallahassee Community College before coming to Milledgeville.