GOSHEN, Ind. — The bats of the Goshen College baseball team came alive Wednesday afternoon as the team more than doubled its season run total in a doubleheader split with Siena Heights University at J. --Harold "Sarge" Yoder Field. SHU won the first game 7-2 and Goshen cruised to a 19-5 win in the nightcap.
The Maple Leaf battery led the onslaught. Pitcher Camm Nickell, who played left field in game two, drove in five runs with two singles and a homer as he quadrupled his career hit total. Catcher Reece Willis roped four hits and designated hitter Jenner Rodammer drove in five men with a pair of doubles.
Goshen scored more runs in the first inning of game two than it had scored in any game this season; the team proceeded to eclipse that total in the second inning and again in the third before scoring twice more in the fourth inning to take a 17-5 lead.
The outburst marked Goshen's highest run and hit totals since another game with 19 runs and 15 hits, the 19-8 win over Spring Arbor in the 2019 Crossroads League tournament, but that work was done in nine innings. GC's last such onslaught in a 7-inning game came more than four years ago on March 5, 2017, in a 21-5 win at Berea College.
Colton Daniel picked up the win for the Maple Leafs when he was staked to a 4-1 lead to start the second inning and Toby Fox nabbed his first career save after four innings of one-hit, one-run relief.
Goshen gave up a run on a fielder's choice in the top of the first inning, but got it back when Rodammer hit into a fielder's choice in the bottom of the frame. Nickell added a go-ahead single and Morgan Baker emptied the bases with another base hit to make it 4-1.
The floodgates opened further in the second inning, which Goshen opened with walks to Brighton C. Schofield and Char Reeves. Peyton Smith added an RBI single before Nate Lange chipped in a sacrifice fly and Nickell unloaded a 3-run blast over the right-field fence for his first career home run. The scoreboard read 9-1 at the end of that inning
SHU got three runs back in the top of the third on two singles, two walks and a wild pitch before Goshen put the rout on with a 6-spot in the bottom of the inning. The Leafs loaded the bases with one out, setting up a run-scoring knock from Willis and a two-run Rodammer double. Nickell and Lange also drove in runs with hits to make the score 15-4.
Willis and Rodammer drove in runs in the fourth inning while Lange hit a sacrifice fly after Rodammer's RBI double in the sixth.
All four hits for Siena Heights (4-13) were singles and came from different players. Cole VanWasshenova drove in two runs.
In the opener, SHU scored in four of its seven innings, taking the lead in the third and scoring six straight runs before giving up a Goshen score in the bottom of the sixth. VanWasshenova came a homer short of the cycle, going 3 for 5, and Chris Winkelman drove in 3 runs. Winkelman, Adam Wilding and Deven Hill all had two hits.
Schofield added a pair of singles for the Maple Leafs (1-18) and Ryan Glithero had the team's lone RBI. Reeves added a double. Eric Pettipiece started and pitched 5 2/3 innings with 2 strikeouts before Bobby Garcia and Benjamin Witterstaetter finished the job.
Wilding's solo homer gave the Saints their first lead three batters into the game and Glithero hit into a fielder's choice to tie the game in the bottom of the second. Winkelman's 2-run homer made it 3-1 after three innings.
The Saints added on with a VanWasshenova double and a Winkelman single in the fifth before a four-hit rally added three more tallies in the sixth. GC added a second run on a throwing error after Schofield's infield hit in the bottom of the inning.
The Maple Leafs are scheduled to take on the University of Saint Francis at the Sarge this weekend in a Crossroads League series, weather permitting. First pitch is currently scheduled for 1 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday. Stay tuned to GoLeafs.net for the latest updates, though, as a weather system is forecast to bring rain to the area Thursday night.
