Golden Tigers host UGA in program-first softball exhibition

The Brenau and University of Georgia softball teams pose for a photo along with Doug and Kay Ivester and Brenau President Ed Schrader between the two games of a doubleheader at Pacolet Milliken Field at the Ernest Ledford Grindle Athletics Park on Saturday
Brenau students enjoy the festivities as Brenau and the University of Georgia softball teams play an exhibition doubleheader at Pacolet Milliken Field at the Ernest Ledford Grindle Athletics Park on Saturday, Sept. 22, 2018. (AJ Reynolds/Brenau University)
Brenau students enjoy the festivities as Brenau and the University of Georgia softball teams play an exhibition doubleheader at Pacolet Milliken Field at the Ernest Ledford Grindle Athletics Park on Saturday, Sept. 22, 2018. (AJ Reynolds/Brenau University)

For the first time in program history, the Brenau University softball team hosted the University of Georgia in an exhibition doubleheader on Saturday, Sept. 22. The games were played at Brenau’s Pacolet Milliken Field at Ernest Ledford Grindle Athletics Park in Gainesville, Georgia.

Brenau Athletic Director Mike Lochstampfor said that while this was a first for the Golden Tigers, the two programs do have a history.

“We have done this before in other sports but never in softball,” he said. “Both UGA and our softball coaches recruit the state very heavily, so we have players that have played with UGA players on travel teams in the past, so we have connections already established.”

Members of the Georgia softball team meet Max, Doug and Kay Ivester's 10 week old golden retriever puppy, between games of a doubleheader with Brenau at Pacolet Milliken Field at the Ernest Ledford Grindle Athletics Park. (AJ Reynolds/Brenau University)
Members of the Georgia softball team meet Max, Doug and Kay Ivester’s 10 week old golden retriever puppy, between games of a doubleheader with Brenau at Pacolet Milliken Field at the Ernest Ledford Grindle Athletics Park. (AJ Reynolds/Brenau University)

As both teams are in their offseasons, the exhibition did not count on a win-loss record and score was not kept. “But it is obviously a game both teams want to play well in,” Lochstampfor said.

The Ernest Ledford Grindle Athletics Park at Brenau University opened in the spring of 2017, providing a home for the Golden Tigers at which to host events such as this. South Carolina-based Pacolet Milliken Enterprises, Inc., made possible the development of the multiuse athletics park when it donated the 16.8-acre tract of land adjacent to the historic Milliken & Co. mill on Jesse Jewell Parkway, about a mile from the historic Gainesville campus.

Doug Ivester, a Brenau trustee, and his wife Kay — who were both in attendance Saturday with their golden retriever puppy, Max — provided funding in 2014 for the first phase of the park, which is named for Kay Ivester’s father.