EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – The Carroll University softball team began the 2023 season at the Fontbonne Tournament hosted in Edwardsville, Illinois on Saturday afternoon. The Pioneers won their first game of the season against Defiance but suffered a blow to Hope in game two.
 
GAME 1
The Pioneers (1-0) cruised to a 3-0 win over Defiance thanks in large part to a one-hit shutout performance by Grace Bradley.
 
Bradley threw 69 pitches in seven innings with three strikeouts and no walks. The Pioneers were paced by Reagan Goluch who finished with two hits and a run scored, while Antoinette Napoli and Kaitlyn Reed supplied an RBI each.
 
Goluch led off the season inning with a single and with one out remaining, Abby Wimmer forced an error on the field that lead to Goluch's run, and Wimmer scored off a single by Reed.
 
Carroll tacked on another run in the bottom of the sixth on Napoli's pinch-hit at-bat to score Sydney Raddeman.
 
GAME 2
The Pioneers (1-1) battled back from three runs down but gave up a wrenching 4-5 loss to Hope. The Pios committed two errors in the loss. Breanna Roberts took the loss with one unearned run credited to her in the fifth inning.
 
Riley Pavelka got the start in game two but allowed six hits, four runs, and one earned run to go with three walks and four strikeouts. Goluch, Reed, and Lauren Harshbarger combined for six of the Pioneers' eight hits in the game. Goluch also added two RBI.
 
Carroll jumped on the board first in the top of the second inning on back-to-back doubles by Raddeman and Harshbarger. Reed posted a quality at-bat with runners at the corners but went down swinging in a nine-pitch at-bat. Hope responded with a four-run inning in the third, with three of said runs unearned.
 
A leadoff single for Reed, a walk for Mathena Higgins, and a pinch-hit double by Kiana Johnson put the Pioneers back into the game down two in the top of the fifth. Goluch cleared the bases with a double the next at-bat, but the next three Pios were retired soon thereafter.
 
With two outs in the bottom of the fifth, Carroll committed an error, a passed ball, and surrendered the go-ahead single. The Pios got runners in scoring position in the top of the sixth but could not send them around.
 
Carroll will wrap up the Fontbonne Tournament with two more games tomorrow against Franklin and Monmouth at 11 AM/1 PM.