GOSHEN, Ind. — The Goshen College softball team dropped its first two games of the Crossroads League season on Friday, watching a seventh-inning comeback fall short in the opener and squandering an early lead in the nightcap against Huntington University. The Foresters prevailed 5-4 and 5-2.

Sandra Rodriguez and Rianna Koteles provided early sparks for the Maple Leaf offense: each batter blasted a solo home run in the first inning of game 1 to level the score at 2. Huntington (3-5, 2-0) re-took the lead an inning later, getting a two-out double from catcher Casey Lehman for a 3-2 lead.

After the teams combined for seven hits in the first 1½ innings, cooler heads prevailed in the pitching circle for the next four frames. Goshen's Alexis Carpenter retired 13 of the next 14 batters she faced while Huntington's Lairen Miller set down 12 of 15 to push the game into the sixth.

The Maple Leafs (8-13, 0-2) got a leadoff walk from Rianna Koteles to put the tying run on in the sixth: the runner stole second and took third on a sacrifice bunt, but didn't get within 60 feet of home plate until the second out. McKinzi Vega kept the line moving with a walk, but an infield popup ended the inning and the scoring chance.

Huntington quickly put together its own chance in the top of the seventh, scoring an insurance run on the second of back-to-back doubles before a groundout led to a sacrifice fly and a 5-2 lead.

The top of GC's lineup gave the hosts a fighting chance in the bottom of the inning: leadoff batter Candace Sutter reached on an error with one out, and two batters later Katherine Boyer singled to left to bring the tying run to the plate. Koteles stroked a fly ball to center field that glanced out of a Huntington glove: with the runners in motion on contact with two outs, both runs scored and Koteles took first.

Goshen's winning run came to the plate in the person of Leah Herrman, who struck out to end the game.

The Maple Leafs managed six hits in the opener, the last four of which were singles. Boyer was the lone Leaf with two hits while Koteles recorded both a hit and a walk in addition to reaching on the seventh-inning miscue. Huntington's seven hits came from seven players with Lehman diving in a pair. Both starting pitchers went the distance: Miller struck out eight and Carpenter three.

Goshen's offense kept rolling into the first three innings of game two, putting up single runs in the odd-numbered frames. Sutter scored in both cases, drawing a pair of leadoff walks before coming home on a Koteles bunt in the first and a wild pitch in the third. Rodriguez added a single and a sacrifice bunt to move the runner ahead.

The Foresters responded in the top of the fourth, putting the first three batters on base before an infield grounder scored the tying run, although Herrman was able to strand the would-be go-ahead run at third. She wasn't so lucky in the sixth inning, though, as a two-out Ashley Brown double gave the guests their first lead.

HU tacked on two more unearned runs against the Goshen bullpen in the seventh, making the final out of the inning on the basepaths between second and third. Meghan Fretz set the Maple Leafs down in order, retiring the last nine hitters she faced, for the complete-game win with three strikeouts and five singles.

Rodriguez finished the day with two Goshen hits while Koteles had the lone RBI; Eichelberger paced Huntington by going 3-for-4 while shortstop Joelle Beals and designated player Ashley Brown had two hits each. Brown drove in two runs and drew a walk as well.

The Maple Leafs host the University of Saint Francis on Saturday to conclude their four-game homestand. First pitch in the doubleheader is set for 1 p.m.