SPRING ARBOR, Mich. — Austin Bontrager hit his first collegiate home run and Mitchell Wilson broke a 5-5 tie with a 2-run blast in the eighth inning of the second game as the Goshen College baseball team forged a doubleheader split with Spring Arbor University on Tuesday at Burbridge Field.

Spring Arbor won the opener 11-5 and Goshen took the second game 7-5.

Goshen (14-25, 8-13) took a pair of early leads in the opener, getting a Tanner Logan single to score Colby Malson in the first inning before a Ben Longacre double put them back up 3-2 in the top of the second.

Spring Arbor (20-23, 11-10) had the firepower to respond in both cases, getting a pair of 2-run innings in its first two trips to the plate and adding a 3-run fourth for a 7-3 lead. Chris Triplett racked up 3 hits, 2 runs and 4 runs batted in over his first three at bats, including the home run that broke open the one-run game.

Logan and Wilson each drove in runs as the Maple Leafs cut the deficit in half in the seventh, but the Cougars answered with 4 tallies in the sixth to put the game out of reach.

Longacre and Logan recorded multiple hits for GC; in addition to Triplett's day, Conner Lengerich added a double and a homer for SAU. The Cougars used four pitchers to get the win.

After a throwing error and a Lengerich solo shot put the Cougars up 2-0 through three innings of the nightcap, Goshen added single runs in the fourth and fifth innings before taking the lead in the sixth. Wilson posted a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning and Bontrager tied the game in the fifth before Logan uncorked a bases-clearing double to take a 5-2 lead.

SAU responded for the final time in the seventh inning, getting a three-run blast from Evan Lorey to tie the score before Colton Daniel set down the next two men he faced.

Daniel would pick up the win once Wilson homered in the top of the eighth, adding an insurance run after a Clinton Stroble II single, and retired the Cougars without a hit in the eighth.

Malson worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning to get the save.

Each team finished with six hits: four of Goshen's and two of Spring Arbor's went for extra bases. Longacre and Lorey posted two hits apiece, as did SAU's Josiah Kitchen.

The win, coupled with Mount Vernon Nazarene's sweep of Saint Francis, moves Goshen into the eighth spot outright in the Crossroads League standings with six games remaining. The Maple Leafs are one game out of seventh and three games behind fifth place with six games left on the league slate.

Goshen is idle until Friday, when the team begins a three-game series with Mount Vernon Nazarene University at Sarge Yoder Field. The series opener begins at 4 p.m., an hour later than the usual 3 p.m., to facilitate the visitors' travel schedule.