GOSHEN, Ind. — Goshen College dropped a pair of softball games to a nationally-recognized Taylor University squad on Saturday, falling 7-0 and 6-1 at GC's John Ingold Athletic Complex.
Edith Vega scored for the Maple Leafs (12-14, 2-8) after she reached on a single in the third inning of game two. Cassandra Espinoza's ground ball scored Vega on a throwing error. Rayna Moraga also had a base hit.
The Maple Leafs used four pitchers over the course of the afternoon, one in multiple stints. Mia Pawelski threw 4 2/3 innings in game one, giving up 4 earned runs and striking out 3 before Alisyn Catenacci got the final 7 outs.
Catenacci also finished the second game, which included 4 1/3 innings of relief from Moraga after taking over from Bernadette Quintero. The three Goshen pitchers totaled 5 strikeouts, 5 walks and 4 earned runs.
Taylor hurler Maddi Evans struck out 16 batters in the first game, allowing her only baserunners through two walks and a hit batter. The Trojans (19-7, 7-3) caught one runner stealing and stranded the other two as Evans completed her no-hit bid on 97 pitches.
In the second game, Lauren Kanai and Cassy Lewis combined for a 72-pitch outing: Kanai allowed two singles and an unearned run while fanning 4 in 5 innings, then Lewis struck out a pair in 2 perfect innings to slam the door.
Kanai also smoked a pair of homers in the opener, when she went 3 for 3 and drove in 3 runs, while Taylor Wilson had 3 hits on the day. Emma West stole 3 bases.
TU opened the scoring with three singles and a fielding error to go up 2-0 in the third inning of game one. Kanai's leadoff homer in the fourth added a run and her two-run shot an inning later made it 5-0. The last two runs came on back-to-back sacrifice flies in the seventh.
In game two, three singles and a fielding error gave the Trojans two runs in the first inning and an Ashton Whitman single drove in two more in the second. Caitlyn Grim hit a 2-out, 2-strike homer to put the visitors up 5-0 in the third before Goshen scored in the bottom of the inning. An unearned run on a Kara Tucker single after a pair of errors rounded out the scoring in the top of the sixth.
The losses mean that Goshen falls to 2-8 in Crossroads League play but also that the team has finished its first set of games against the top three schools in the league: Marian, Indiana Wesleyan and Taylor have all received votes in the NAIA national poll. The Maple Leafs will play just six of their last 26 conference games against that group while every other team still has to play them eight or 10 more times.
Goshen plays its first of two Holy Week home doubleheaders on Tuesday when it welcomes Spring Arbor to the John Ingold Athletic Complex for a 3 p.m. first pitch.
