Go online to a world news site such as CNN.com and you’ll inevitably come across some heavy news: wars, hurricanes, political bickering, rising food prices, and so on and so on.

Fortunately, you don’t have to dig too deeply into this wonderful sport we all love so much to find an antidote to the wearying stories that we encounter every day.

Take, for example, the admirable friendship that has been built between two of the best young shortstops in club softball today, both in the Class of 2029—LG Goldin, who plays for Georgia Impact – Cleghorn and lives in Buford, Ga., and Aaliyah Zamano, who competes with Athletics – Mercado/Romero and calls Southern California home.

The pair were ranked in the Top 10 of the 2029 Line Drive HOT 100 that was released on April 19, 2024 with LG being No. 1 overall and Aaliyah tied for 6^th.

You might think that, playing against each other representing two of the top competitive travel ball programs in the sport, the young infielders would be bitter rivals and try to outdo each other.

You’d be wrong.

On the contrary, the two athletes are friends today, admire each other’s game and seek out each out whenever they can.

Their story begins earlier this year, when LG and Aaliyah and their teams both competed in the Kentucky PGF Power 80 tournament in the Spring.

Pretty quickly, the talk at the event became focused on the talents of the duo with a friendly debate on who was the better shortstop and upbeat comments from coaches and parents about how impressively each played.

“I first noticed LG in Kentucky in the semis,” Aaliyah recalls. “We shook hands and both said to the other: ‘Good game.'”

LG picks up the story from here.

“After the semi-finals, which we played and lost to the Athletics,” she remembers, “me and my Dad (Ryan Goldin) went to the other dugout and congratulated their team. I met Aailyah and we had our photo taken together.”

The two met up again at the Colorado Sparkler tournament in early July which featured 88 top 12U teams nationwide. It was Aaliyah’s last tournament of the summer, and she went out a champion as the Athletics topped the Impact 7-4 in the title game.

Individually, both shortstops had outstanding weeks at Sparkler as LG batted .606 (20-for-33) with four home runs, five doubles, and 14 RBIs. Aaliyah hit .485 with three homers, two triples, two doubles and an impressive 18 runs batted in.

Impressive stats and respecting each other’s game aside, what has been the key in the two getting to know each other better?

“I can tell Aaliyah is outgoing,” LG responds, “and so am I once I get comfortable.”

The Peach State phenom believes they both have their strengths.

“I have good range to the ball and hands, and she has a really good arm.”

“I think LG is better at communicating on the field than I am,” Zamano counters humbly. “We have respect for each other on and off the field and just admire each other. We also have a relationship via social media (Snapchat) too.”

Expect the pair to meet up on the fields many more times at the club level before they likely do so at the college level also. One thing will be sure: they’ll have a lot of photographic proof of their match-ups.

“They have a ton of respect for each other,” LG’s father says, “and they take pictures with each other after each tournament when they play together.”

Aaliyah echoes those sentiments when she concludes:

“Yes, I definitely will always look forward to playing LG in big tournaments along with taking pictures to share memories we will create with each other.”