All-American Battery to Set Stage for Softball Success

The Georgia Gwinnett College softball team will be set in motion this upcoming season by a quality battery featuring a returning All-American, a former conference Player of the Year, and a fifth-year catcher to keep the Grizzlies among the NAIA’s diamond elite.

Senior Alexa Good and sophomore Annalise Wood provide GGC with a strong one-two punch inside the pitching circle while tossing strikes to catcher Sydney Pelaez when the season begins February 8 with a doubleheader against Ohio Christian University at the Grizzly Softball Complex. 

In preparation for this spring’s first pitch, GGCAthletics.com begins examining the team’s key positions, starting with the talented pitching-catching battery.

Good was sensational down the stretch in helping lead GGC to a 36-20 record, capturing the inaugural Continental Athletic Conference championship, and hosting an NAIA Opening Round tournament. She pitched in 40 of those games last spring, including a sensational performance that led to the first perfect game in school history – a 1-0 victory against Cottey College (Missouri). 

The right hander from Pembroke Pines, Florida, has posted a 43-15 record during the past two seasons and had a school-record 225 strikeouts in 2021 when she earned second-team NAIA and NFCA All-America honors.

Meanwhile, Wood was nearly unhittable during a school-record freshman campaign a year ago at Bryan College (Tennessee). She had 316 strikeouts for the season, with 18 strikeouts in one game, while receiving Appalachian Athletic Conference Pitcher, Player and Freshman of the Year awards. The right hander is no stranger to the Grizzly Softball Complex as she struck out 13 Grizzlies and scattered five hits in a seven-inning duel against Good on March 2, 2022.

Head Softball Coach Kat Ihlenburg is happy both are now GGC teammates. 

Other experienced pitching components are sophomores Kailyn Berry and Mollie Peacock, and junior Gracie Hogg, while freshman Bri Deleon is coming off a strong high school career in North Georgia.

Berry led the 2022 pitching staff with a 2.13 earned run average in 20 starts and tossed a one-hitter against University of Michigan-Dearborn in the NAIA Opening Round Lawrenceville Bracket.

Peacock had three wins among 10 appearances and six starts during her first college season, while Hogg is back after missing the 2022 season due to an injury.

Deleon was the winning pitcher for North Forsyth High School in the region championship game.

An asset behind the plate is Pelaez, a four-year starter who batted .405, hit a career-high six home runs, along with 15 doubles and 47 runs scored last spring. The Tampa native had an impressive .519 on-base percentage, 17 walks and 19 hit by pitches from the lead-off spot in the Grizzlies’ batting lineup. 

“We’re very fortunate to have a player like Sydney who has experience and has played in big games. She is a calming presence for our pitchers,” said Ihlenburg, the only coach in the program’s 11-year history. “A great catcher calls a great game, receives pitches really well, and gets some strikes for the pitcher, while a great pitcher throws the pitch that is called and hits the spot where the catcher is set up … [Sydney] caught games that took us to the World Series in 2019 and has been on teams that were on the cusp of really good things.”

Providing depth at catcher are junior Claire Garney, a three-year player who had a career-high 13 appearances in 2022, junior Logan Oller and sophomore Lindzie Owen, who both also can play other positions across the field. Oller had 42 outfield starts last year, with 28 hits and 18 runs scored, while Owen appeared in 33 games in the infield and successfully stole eight bases in 2022.