FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Clinton Stroble stroked a three-run homer in the third inning of game three and Ben Longacre put the Goshen College baseball team in front for good five innings later as the Maple Leafs took two of three games from the University of Saint Francis this weekend.

The Cougars won Friday's opener 10-2 in the first Crossroads League game of the season for both teams, but Goshen bounced back to sweep Saturday's doubleheader 4-2 and 10-8. The final game was called in the bottom of the eighth because of rain.

The Maple Leafs (7-8, 2-1) remained the home team even though the games were shifted from Sarge Yoder Field to artificial turf at the World Baseball Academy, less than two miles from USF's campus.

The Cougars (3-10, 1-2) got a two-run single from Tony Bova in the second inning of the opener and didn't trail again until Saturday. They added 3 more runs on 4 hits in the third before breaking the game open on a sixth-inning Tanner Gaff grand slam.

Goshen scored single runs in the fifth, getting a pair of RBI from Tanner Logan on a groundout and a single.

USF outhit Goshen 16-6: Cougar left fielder Brady Harris was 4 for 5 with 2 doubles.

The Maple Leafs took their first lead of the series on a bases-loaded balk in the first inning of game two, only to leave the bases loaded in each of their first two innings and watch the Cougars take the lead with a Noah Freimuth double and a Jack Harris single in the third.

GC got those two runs back in its half of the third after a Colby Malson double and two walks loaded the bases. Malson crossed the plate on a wild pitch to tie the score and Bobby Garcia singled home Austin Bontrager to make it 3-2. Kody McGuire's bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the sixth added an insurance run.

Colton Daniel allowed a leadoff single, but picked the runner off two pitches later and didn't allow another hit in his two-inning save. Camm Nickell got the win after allowing 5 hits and striking out 6 in 5 innings.

Malson was the only player on either team with multiple hits, although Logan and Stroble each walked twice.

Whatever organized chaos had been bottled up throughout the weekend let loose in the series finale as the teams combined for eight runs in an inning on two occasions and Mother Nature called an early halt to the proceedings when the game took more than two and a half hours to reach the eighth inning.

After a dropped popup and a force play, the Maple Leafs scored on Stroble's first-inning double, then forged a 4-4 tie on his 3-run blast in the fourth. Saint Francis had taken a 4-3 lead in the top of the third behind three hits and three errors. Jason Grooms hit into a fielder's choice to drive in Logan and make it 5-4 Goshen through three.

With a band of rain showers some 100 miles wide advancing across the state of Indiana, the teams made it through the fifth inning without further incident or scoring, making the game official. Saint Francis promptly tied the score in the sixth behind a pair of singles and a throwing error. Eleven of the next 12 men went down in order, the exception being Logan's one-out double in the bottom of the seventh.

After 15 men batted in the sixth and seventh innings combined, the same number came to the plate in the eighth, an inning that will never be finished following the rainout.

The Cougars opened the festivities with a leadoff triple to the left-center field gap before Malson struck out Gaff. Bova would reach on a throwing error, although Malson was able to look Freimuth back to third base, and a Jacob Nagy sacrifice fly gave USF its second lead of the day at 6-5.

With its advantage gone, Goshen went to Kade Gorman in the bullpen. Harold Wolfe drew a walk before a single and fielding error allowed both runners to score and the Cougars took an 8-5 lead. For the second game in a row, though, GC's reliever got a key out on the basepaths, enlisting the help of three-fourths of the infield in an inning-ending rundown.

Pinch-hitter Chase Hunter battled back from an 0-2 count to draw a leadoff walk in the bottom of the inning, and the Maple Leafs loaded the bases with no outs after a fielding error and a walk to Bailey Owens. With the go-ahead run at the plate and the top of the order due up, USF went to the bullpen and brought Freimuth in from center field to pitch.

Garcia kept the line moving, closing the margin to 8-6 and moving runners up 90 feet with a single to left. Longacre's game-winning double followed six pitches later.

The first two pitches to Stroble resulted in a passed ball and a wild pitch, each allowing Longacre to advance 90 feet and eventually score; after that plate appearance and three pitches to Logan, the game was called at 4:05 p.m.

Longacre, Stroble, Logan and Bontrager each had 2 hits apiece for the Maple Leafs: Longacre scored 3 times and drove in 3 runs while Garcia scored twice and Stroble racked up 4 RBI. Brady Harris had a pair of hits for the Cougars.

Malson struck out a career-high 12 batters in 7 2/3 innings on the mound, but Gorman picked up the win due to the late comeback. Charlie Betts, who worked 5 innings of relief for USF, also took home a no-decision.

Goshen is back on the road Monday for a makeup doubleheader at Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Illinois. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. EDT.