The sounds of spring are heralding the end of winter in Chattanooga. The singing of birds in parks, the growl of lawn mowers in the suburbs and the crack of a bat connecting with a softball at Frost Stadium, where the Lady Mocs are putting together another winning season.
Make that the smack of a grapefruit-sized ball hitting a catcher’s mitt as SoCon’s 2024 Pitcher of the Year, Peja Goold, fires it across the plate and catches the hitter looking. Or the cheer of the hometown crowd as a batter swings but finds nothing but air and Goold notches another strikeout.
Goold is making a habit of striking out opponents during her third year with the Mocs. She sent five batters back to the dugout as she picked up her ninth win of the season during the Make it Happen Games at ROC Park in Madeira Beach, Florida, March 8. That brought her season tally to 95 strikeouts in 14 appearances in the pitching circle. Goold pocketed 14 of those KOs during a single game against Stony Brook Feb. 28.
Goold registered 126 strikeouts during her POTY run in 2024. She says the last out of the Mocs’ victory in the Southern Conference title game against UNC Greensboro was the most memorable KO for her.
“I was throwing to a good hitter. She roped a backdoor curve down the line, which made me double-check how many runners were on the bases. We were up by three and there were two runners on, so I thought, ‘If she hits my next pitch, we’ll be OK.’ Then I locked her up looking.”
Goold credits the coaching staff at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with refining the skills she brought to the Mocs after several years of rec and travel ball in her home state of California. She mentions being especially grateful to pitching coach Cheyanne Camp, who has a talent for suggesting small changes that make a big difference in her delivery.
“Something was off with my changeup, so I asked [Cheyanne] for help. After watching one pitch, she pointed out that my weight was on my backside, which isn’t how I throw. I needed to place my weight over my front foot. My next pitch was perfect. That was mind-blowing to me. She has an amazing eye for mechanics.”
Good instruction can fall on deaf ears, Camp says, but Goold listens and hears. She then applies her dogged work ethic to correcting any issues.
“Peja is never satisfied,” Camp adds. “After every inning, we talk about what is and isn’t working, or if I saw anything mechanically wrong that she couldn’t sense. She challenges herself and wants her teammates and me to hold her accountable.”
Goold’s ability to send a ball through the strike zone, or to at least lure a player into taking an ill-advised swing, has less to do with the speed of her pitches and more to do with her versatility as a pitcher, says Mocs Head Coach Frank Reed.
“Peja isn’t our hardest thrower, but she puts the most spin on the ball, so she can make it move, whether it’s a curveball, a drop ball or a rise ball. She has a full arsenal of pitches, which allows us to perhaps hold back her changeup or drop ball until we’re deeper into a game. Then hitters will have to look for not only the pitches we were beating them on but also something different.”
Goold’s resourcefulness extends beyond her one-on-one battles against SoCon hitters to the broader tactics Reed employs during a game. For example, the coach says he feels confident inserting her at any point during a contest, whether the Mocs need to gain an advantage at the onset or claw their way back to contention after falling behind.
Chattanooga was clinging to a one-run lead in the bottom of the eighth inning against the Long Island University Sharks in the final bout of the Make it Happen Games March 9 when Reed sent Goold to the pitching circle. The Mocs had jumped ahead 8-4 at the top of the inning on a Presley Williamson grand slam and then the Sharks had bitten back with back-to-back homeruns to make it 8-7.
Not to worry: Goold struck out the last three batters to secure the win for the Mocs.
“You have pitchers who can come out on a particular day and no one can touch them. And then they’ll come out on another day and they’re not as sharp as usual. And maybe they count on the people in the bullpen to help them,” Reed explains. “Peja has played both roles. She’s been the starter who’s finished the game and she’s been the reliever who’s helped somebody out.”
Camp attributes this flexibility to Goold’s intense focus during a game.
“She’s locked in from the first pitch and can remember what worked and what didn’t work against certain hitters. And before she goes out again, she wants to know who she’s going to see next and the game plan for those hitters.”
The result is an athlete who’s “dirty in the best way possible,” laughs Camp.
“I’ve seen some good hitters look ridiculous against Peja. She’ll get excited but never cocky. Our coaches like to call her the Greg Maddux of our pitching staff – and she lives true to that nickname day after day.”
Maddux is generally considered one of the greatest pitchers in Major League Baseball history. To this day, he’s the only MLB pitcher to win at least 15 games for 17 straight seasons. But like Maddux, the numbers don’t tell the whole story of who Goold is or where softball is taking her.
The windup
Goold began to play rec ball at the age of 7, although it wasn’t love at first pitch for her. In fact, she was so averse to pitching that she nearly quit softball altogether after her 10u travel ball coach benched her for refusing to throw. Goold’s father, Dean, insisted she give softball one more season before retiring.
“I thank my dad for keeping me in the game because I 100% wanted to quit. And I ended up loving my next season of rec ball,” Goold recalls.
Goold says the problem in 10u ball was the environment, not the sport, so when her dad formed a small town travel team that needed a pitcher, she stepped in to fill the role. And the rest, she says, is history.
Or rather, history and a sound life lesson.
“My dad taught me not to quit something because of one bad experience. If you stick with it, then maybe it will reveal itself to you differently.”
In the seasons that followed, Goold fell under the tutelage of coaches who armed her with the pitches she’s deploying with the Mocs. She learned her rise ball and curveball from the pitching coach at the University of the Pacific when she was in seventh and eighth grades and picked up her drop ball from another coach when she was in high school. Goold says this trainer enabled her to make varsity her freshman year.
“At the time, I was a rise-ball pitcher,” Goold remembers. “If you told someone that today, they wouldn’t believe you because now I’m a down ball pitcher.”
In time, Goold fused her athletic development with the life lesson her father taught her and gained the ability to refocus when things are not going well.
“If I throw a bad pitch, I’ll tell myself that my mistake won’t define how I’m going to pitch for the rest of the game,” she explains. “No one gets it right all the time, so when you have a bad moment, give it another shot.”
Classroom success
When Goold isn’t applying life lessons on the ball field, she’s in the classroom learning how to market goods and services in the digital age. Much like finding her footing in softball took time, she bounced between various majors before settling on business.
“When I was a kid, I wanted to be a vet. When I was older, I wanted to be a marine biologist. But since I don’t want to stay in California, I tried communications. That didn’t challenge me, so I moved into management.”
Goold took her first marketing class last fall. This placed her under the instruction of Alycia Franklin, an associate professor in UTC’s Gary W. Rollins College of Business. When a guest speaker in Franklin’s class spoke about their work with NASCAR, Goold saw a possible future unfold before her.
“I’d love to do social media marketing, or marketing in general, for a pro sports team,” Goold declares. “I feel like marketing is a better position for me as a woman than management, so I switched majors and really like it so far.”
This is no pipe dream, says Franklin, who calls Goold “brilliant, ambitious and driven.”
“Peja would be an asset to the marketing industry, whatever focus she chooses,” Franklin adds. “However, sports marketing is growing exponentially for women. There are many options, from broadcasting to branding and product development and NIL (name, image and likeness), as marketing in the sports industry moves into an era of storytelling and entertainment. In addition, an increase in fan demand for women’s sports has resulted in a greater need for women in the industry.”
As Goold looks back, she’s thankful UTC was the school that responded to the hundreds of emails she sent out during her search for a university.
“I spammed 400 colleges during COVID because I had no clue where to go. All I knew was I didn’t want to be in California. And then I checked my phone one day and saw a message from Chattanooga. I hadn’t notice who I’d spammed, but I was so appreciative that I’d emailed UTC and that they’d emailed me back. It’s turned out really well for me.”
Peja’s list of things she loves about UTC includes the extraordinary level of school spirit – which she says is absent from schools in California – and her professors. Topping the list, however, is being a Lady Moc.
“Being a Lady Moc is an honor. The group of girls that the coaches picked this year are very close-knit. We started off a little rough on the field, but we’re finding our footing and the fight is there no matter what the score is. We believe in each other, so things are looking good.”
By this, Goold means she believes the Mocs can secure another championship win at the end of the season.
“We 100% have the potential, and right now, we’re feeling really good. It doesn’t matter how you start, though, it matters how you end.”
The eventual end of Goold’s days as a Moc might not signal the conclusion of her softball career. Rather, she’s mulling over several post-graduation opportunities, including playing internationally and coaching. Somewhere in there, she plans to also earn a master’s degree.
Her current focus, however, is on the next game, the next batter and her next pitch.
“We’ll see where softball takes me,” Goold says. “For now, we have another ring to win.”