BLUFFTON, Ohio — Ryan Hartig hit a pair of triples, Brandon Vires went yard and Kyle Kotecki worked five innings of relief for the win Sunday as Goshen College split a baseball doubleheader with Bluffton University at BU's Memorial Field. The Beavers won 4-2 in the first game while the Maple Leafs prevailed 9-5 in the second.

Each side recorded seven hits in the opener, with Goshen (9-12) taking a 1-0 second-inning lead on Vires' first career home run. The solo shot was one pitch away from being a three-run blast after the previous batter turned a three-ball count into a double play, erasing Colby Malson's leadoff single in the process.

Bluffton (9-5) got a leadoff triple from Jeff Arnett in the third; he came home one pitch later on an Austin Goetzman single before Goetzman gave the hosts their first lead on a fielding error later in the inning. Goshen would tie the score without a hit in the next half-inning: after McGuire's leadoff walk, he advanced on an error and a groundout before equalizing at 2-2 on a passed ball.

The Maple Leafs got a runner to third base in the fifth after a Ben Longacre leadoff single, but the team would muster one hit after that in the seven-inning game. Longacre became the second GC runner stranded at the final station after Hartig's two-out triple in the third.

Arnett's run in the bottom of the frame put the Beavers up for good: he reached on a fielding error and advanced 90 feet at a time on a sacrifice bunt and two singles. Reid Ruhl got the go-ahead hit and Arnett drove in pinch runner Malik Jackson with a double for a sixth-inning insurance run.

Kyle Staelgraeve threw a 91-pitch, 6-inning complete game for GC, allowing seven hits and two earned runs while striking out three. Garrett O'Reilly also worked six innings for Bluffton, scattering six hits and one earned run before yielding to Dante D'Andrea for the save.

Arnett and Ruhl racked up two hits each for BU, with Arnett's double and triple the only extra-base hits. Longacre, who singled twice, was the lone GC batter to reach base more than once.

The opener marked the 40th head-to-head meeting between the two Mennonite institutions that share a purple-and-white color scheme: Noah Byers, former Goshen president and Bluffton dean, had attended Northwestern University and applied his alma mater's hues to both schools. The Maple Leafs and Beavers first met on the diamond in 1963.

Goshen scored nine runs on nine hits for its ninth win of the season in the nightcap. Longacre went 2-for-2 and scored four times in the back-and-forth affair that saw both starting pitchers out of the game after four innings.

The Maple Leafs got their first run on a two-out throwing error in the top of the first inning, which set Hartig up to double the lead on the next pitch when Colby Malson singled. Bluffton started its inning off with a walk and a single before getting one run back on a sacrifice fly.

Each team used a leadoff double to score in the second inning: Goshen's Cody McCoy took third base and home plate on successive flyouts to left, while Arnett moved up on a Jaxon Rogan single before Colin Gregory unleashed a game-tying double two pitches later.

Longacre worked a walk on the payoff pitch to start the fourth inning: two batters later, Hartig put him across the plate and Goshen up 4-3 with his fifth career triple. A senior outfielder, Hartig becomes the ninth Maple Leaf with at least five career three-baggers, something that hadn't been achieved since Mark Schloneger graduated in 1997.

Neither team scored its next time up, bringing the seven-inning affair to its midpoint. With Goshen starter Logan Jones out of the game in favor of Kotecki, Bluffton started the fourth inning with hits by Goetzman and Rogan before a groundout moved both men into scoring position: a Ryan Golden base hit gave the hosts a 5-4 lead.

That edge was short-lived, though: the first three Maple Leafs reached base in the fifth, with Stoltzfus tying the game on a bases-loaded passed ball before Malson singled in Longacre for a 6-5 lead. GC tacked on three more runs in the sixth inning, getting back-to-back doubles from Stoltzfus and Bobby Garcia, while Kotecki got the Beavers to go 1-for-their-last-11 at the plate. The junior lefty struck out six.

Neither team scored in the seventh inning, marking the first full inning since the first inning of game one with a pair of zeroes on the scoreboard. Gregory, Golden, Rogan and catcher Reid Maus had two hits each for BU. Starter Jack Bondy took the loss with three earned runs in four innings while Cam Clark finished the game with 1 2/3 hitless frames.

Longacre and Malson each recorded two Maple Leaf hits while Longacre also led all players with two steals in the second game.

The Maple Leafs will be back in action this weekend after weather forced the postponement of Goshen's visit to Mount Vernon Nazarene that had been scheduled for Tuesday.

Thanks to a snowstorm predicted to hit Indiana over the weekend, the series at Saint Francis has also been rearranged: Goshen and USF will now play a doubleheader at 2 p.m. Friday followed by a single game at 1 p.m. Saturday. All three games are slated for the World Baseball Academy fields on Freeman Street in Fort Wayne.