MARION, Ind. — Quinlan Armstrong's first collegiate home run gave the Goshen College baseball team a late two-run lead, but a two-run single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth gave Indiana Wesleyan University a 6-5 walk-off win Thursday night in the first game of a Crossroads League weekend series.

Each team scored in each of the first two innings before the pitching staffs dominated the middle third of the game. Preston Carr scored Goshen's first run on a one-out single from Clinton Stroble II in the opening inning before a throwing error allowed IWU (20-23, 6-11) to level the score in the bottom of the frame.

Two more hits, a one-out single by Connor Clemens and a two-out ground ball to center off the bat of Brad Stoltzfus, put the Maple Leafs (19-20-1, 8-10) up 2-1, but the visitors left two men on base for the second straight inning.

The Wildcats took their first lead of the game with three straight hits in the bottom of the inning after Blaine Reed's first-pitch leadoff homer was followed by a Grant Thompson double and a single from Tanner Killian before Goshen starter Blake Collins used a popup, fielder's choice and fly ball to right to end the inning trailing 3-2.

Armstrong's walk loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the third before a Colby Malson sacrifice fly scored courtesy runner Brad Lantz to tie the score at three. The Maple Leafs would get no further, however, as IWU starter Jon Young struck out the next two batters and escape the third.

Ryan Hartig's single in the fifth inning would mark the start of the only half-inning out of the next seven that saw multiple men reach base. Malson joined him aboard after getting hit by a pitch with two outs, but neither runner scored as the game entered the fifth tied 0-0.

Each starting pitcher worked seven innings and threw exactly 110 pitches, with Collins surrendering eight hits and two walks against seven and three, respectively, for Young. Their run totals, however, would not be equal.

Young retired the first two men he faced in the seventh before Hartig worked a one-out walk; two pitches later, Armstrong pulled his first home run of the season over the left-field fence to give the Maple Leafs a 5-3 lead. Young left after the inning with five runs allowed, of which three were earned: Collins was tagged with two earned runs and one unearned.

Neither team could scratch out a run in the eighth inning, and despite a one-out throwing error that left runners on second and third, GC would not score in the ninth.

Killian led off the Wildcat ninth with a single before closer Spenser Triplett retired Ryan Bixler on a flyout. The next two men loaded the bases via a single and a walk before a ground ball to third base. But a fielding error turned a potential game-ending twin killing into a run, pulling the Wildcats within 5-4 with the bases still loaded.

Even though baseball scoring rules never allow the statistician to assume a double play would have been turned on a fielding error, the definition of an error suggests that an out could have been recorded on the chopper, so insult was added to scoreboard injury moments later when Triplett got Andrew Breytenbach to foul out down the first-base line. While the out was only the second of the inning, it represented what should have been the third, although the Maple Leafs still led and needed one more out to post the win.

Wildcat first baseman Caleb Eder, however, had other ideas, lining a single down the left-field line to plate two runs and end the game.

Eder and Killian each finished with three of IWU's 12 hits, followed by two from catcher Breytenbach. Brady West scored twice. On the Goshen side, Stoltzfus and Stroble each hit safely twice with Stoltzfus reaching safely a third time on a walk.

Kyle Hall took the win for Indiana Wesleyan after two scoreless innings of relief, striking out four. Triplett was charged with the loss, while no save was recorded: Goshen reliever Braedon Evans picked up a hold.

The Maple Leafs and Wildcats continue their series with a doubleheader at 1 p.m. Saturday.