FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Just when it seemed a pair of superb pitching performances might go to waste Friday for the Goshen College baseball team, a pinch-hit bases-loaded triple sparked a five-run ninth-inning rally to brighten the Maple Leafs' afternoon as the team came from behind to earn a doubleheader split with the University of Saint Francis.

USF used its own offensive heroics to open the weekend series with a 4-3 victory before Goshen leveled the score with a 5-1 win in the nightcap, setting up a decisive rubber game at 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

Goshen (10-13, 2-3) racked up four hits through three innings of the opener, putting the leadoff man on base twice and getting five runners into scoring position but leaving half a dozen runners on base. While the Cougars (6-16, 3-2) got out-hit 6-2 over the first three frames, they got on the scoreboard first when David Snider's triple set up a Keaton Sullivan sacrifice fly with one out in the third inning.

Shortstop Cody McCoy led off the fourth with a single to center before his teammates made a pair of outs. One infielder would pick up another, though, as first baseman Brad Stoltzfus singled through the left side to knock in McCoy for the game-tying run.

After giving up the USF run, Goshen starter Braedon Evans retired 11 of the next 13 men he faced, wrapping up the sixth inning with a two-hitter and the 1-1 tie still intact to go with four strikeouts.

Goshen's bats awoke briefly in the seventh inning as the Maple Leafs loaded the bases with no outs. Ben Longacre led off with a double before Clinton Stroble and Ryan Hartig each drew walks to load the bases: a pair of hit batters, Colby Malson and Kody McGuire, each moved the line forward 90 feet, driving in runs to put the Leafs up 3-1. Swinging the bats would prove a different story as the next three hitters all recorded outs to send the game to the bottom of the seventh.

Unfortunately for GC, the Cougars' bats also woke up, and this time it was the lumber doing the damage. Saint Francis opened its inning with three straight hits, the last a two-run Tony Bova double that leveled the score at 3. After a bunt and a fielding error sent the winning run to third base, the Maple Leafs called the bullpen: another error went on to load the bases before a wild pitch brought in Bova for the winning run.

Stroble went 3 for 4 and Stoltzfus 2 for 3 to pace a GC offense that mustered eight hits, two of which came in the last four innings. Ryan Hartig reached twice via walk. USF's five hits came from five players, but three of the five went for extra bases. Dane Hoffman started and went six innings for the Cougars: despite walking off the mound in line for the loss, Chandlor Rivera claimed the win in relief.

Travis Grimm took a no-hitter into the fifth and allowed two hits over eight innings for the Maple Leafs in game two, but never threw a pitch with the lead. The Cougars scored a run without a hit in the first inning, drawing three straight walks before a sacrifice fly and an inning-ending double play, and all of Goshen's scoring happened after Grimm left the game in the ninth.

Instead, one man listed as a pitcher came through in the clutch to knock in another hurler on the bases for the go-ahead runs and an infielder slammed the door in the ninth, even though the team's closer did not earn the save.

The Maple Leafs got baserunners in five of the first six innings, moving the runners into scoring position three times, with the best chance coming after a one-out McCoy triple in the fifth. But after four runners were left on and two more got cut down stealing, the team sported a goose egg on the scoreboard after six innings and went down in order in both the seventh and eighth.

USF would nearly double its lead in the bottom of the eighth after a two-out Tanner Gaff double. Goshen issued an intentional walk to set up the force play before Tyler Prince hit a ball up the middle and reached on a fielding error. The pinch-runner for Gaff rounded third and kept going, though, allowing McCoy to gather the ball and rifle it to Stroble behind the plate. A diving tag closed out the inning and brought the top of GC's lineup to the plate.

Goshen's game-winning rally started with a strikeout: unlikely though it may seem, Longacre took first base on a wild pitch as the delivery eluded the catcher. Another pair of hit batters ensued, first Stroble and then Hartig, loading the bases with no outs for Malson. The second baseman and closer forced in his second run of the day, this time with the less painful method of taking four balls for a walk.

Much like the Maple Leafs had done 8½ innings earlier, Saint Francis went to the bullpen after allowing the tying run with the go-ahead score on base. What followed for the Cougars would be a bitter combination of déjà vu and a taste of their own medicine.

Kyle Staelgrave pinch-ran for Malson, who continued his warm-up tosses in the bullpen, while Brighton Schofield pinch-hit for designated hitter Kristopher Plough. The 6'2", 185-pound freshman uncorked his first extra-base hit of the month, a three-bagger into center field that gave his team a 4-1 lead. Two batters later, McGuire singled to center to drive in Schofield and give Goshen a 5-1 lead.

The four-run advantage meant that when Malson moved to the mound in the bottom of the inning, the game was not in a save situation, denying the Tri-Central High School product the chance to match his 2017 save total. The situation mattered little, though, as Malson set the Cougars down 1-2-3.

Once again, the winning team had no players with more than one hit: much like USF lead-off hitter David Snider in game one, Stoltzfus recorded both a hit and a walk. Schofield's three runs batted in more than doubled his career total while Grimm got the win after allowing seven baserunners in eight frames.

On the Cougar side, Gaff accounted for a plurality of the offense with a double and two walks; despite that, he neither scored nor drove in the team's run, honors that went to Snider and Noah Freimuth respectively. Starter Kyle DeKoninck took no decision after an eight-inning quality start with four hits, no runs and 10 strikeouts.

The weekend series concludes at 1 p.m. Saturday: while most Crossroads League sets finish with the doubleheader, all 10 teams played their twinbills on Friday in an attempt to beat an incoming winter storm.