FORT WAYNE, Ind. — One day after posting the first series sweep of Taylor University in 55 years, the Goshen College baseball team's bid for a Division I upset was foiled, 11-9, by Purdue University Fort Wayne.

Goshen (12-21) led the game at 3-0, 5-3 and 6-5 before tying the score again in the eighth, but the Mastodons (5-21) responded with three runs in their half of the penultimate inning and stranded the tying run on first in the ninth.

The Maple Leafs posted 17 hits and left 13 runners on base, getting three-hit performances from Colby Malson in the leadoff spot and Ben Longacre in the second position. Right fielder Evan Creager drove in 3.

Purdue Fort Wayne got two hits apiece from Aaron Chapman, Robert Young III, Austin Wilke and Trenton Stoner: Chapman and Garrett Mohler each drove in a pair as Mohler hit the game's only homer. The hosts used seven pitchers to get through 43 at bats.

GC started its second inning with three straight hits, the last of which resulted in Brighton Schofield driving in Kody McGuire. Schofield later scored along with Bobby Garcia on Creager's two-bagger.

Purdue Fort Wayne responded with five runs in its next three innings, getting one in the second, two to tie the game in the third, and two more to tie matters again in the fourth. Goshen pulled back in front on Longacre's two-run double in the fourth inning and again in the fifth when Creager singled back up the middle.

The hosts tried to pull away with three runs in the sixth and seventh innings, getting one marker back on a wild pitch, another on a Chapman single and the last on a double.

Mitchell Wilson and McGuire each drove in runs for Goshen to tie the score in the eighth, but Mohler's homer was the coup de grace as PFW took the lead for good with a three-run eighth of its own.

The Maple Leafs tried to start a ninth-inning rally with three singles, but two strikeouts to start the inning left no margin for error when a called third strike stranded Longacre on second and Clinton Stroble II on first.

The Maple Leafs return to the NAIA and the Crossroads League this weekend as they visit Indiana Wesleyan University and turn the corner to the second half of the conference season. The series begins with a single game at 4 p.m. Friday before a doubleheader Saturday.