GOSHEN, Ind. — Char Reeves, Jenner Rodammer and Reece Willis each had four hits for the Goshen College baseball team over the weekend in a four-game series with the University of Saint Francis at J. Harold "Sarge" Yoder Field. Reeves also drew four walks for an on-base percentage better than .500 in the series, but the Cougars won all four games to improve to 10-6 in Crossroads League action.
Friday, Game 1: Saint Francis 12, Goshen 9 (box score)
The weekend's first game was also the longest, running more than 3 hours thanks to 21 runs, 28 hits and 8 walks. The Cougars (18-11, 10-6) took a lead two batters into the game when David Miller tested the right-field fence with a 2-run homer, but the Maple Leafs got a run back on a Nate Lange double in the bottom of the inning.
Each team scored in the second, with Reeves singling in Austin Bontrager, and Goshen turned a 5-2 deficit into a 6-5 lead in the third inning on a 2-run single from Peyton Smith and a pair of sacrifice flies. Saint Francis went down in order in the fourth inning and Bontrager added a 2-run single in the bottom of the frame to go up 8-5.
Tyler Rickert added a sacrifice fly and Brady Harris had an RBI single for Saint Francis in the fifth inning before Harris tied the game on an RBI groundout in the seventh. A wild pitch made it 9-8 Saint Francis, flipping the lead again, before Kaden Sullivan uncorked a 2-run double and scored on a Jude Goodman single in the eighth.
Camm Nickell's one-out double set up Goshen's last run in the bottom of the eighth, scoring on a wild pitch, but that would be Goshen's last hit of the game.
After the early offense, each team found stability in the latter stages: Joshua Pluimer got the win with 4 shutout innings for USF while Kade Gorman allowed 3 earned runs in 4 1/3 innings for GC.
The Cougars outhit the Maple Leafs 17-11, getting four hits from Sullivan and three from Tyler Prince along with two-hit games from Miller, Alec Brunson and Jose Valdes-Sandoval. Nickell, Smith and Lange each had a single and a double for GC. Sullivan and Bontrager each drove in 3 runs for their teams.
Friday, Game 2: Saint Francis 2, Goshen 0 (box score)
After a barnburner in the opener, 13 of the 14 half-innings in game two went by without a run. The exception was the top of the second, when the Cougars opened with two walks and brought them home on a Mikhail McCowin sacrifice fly and a Valdes-Sandoval single.
The Maple Leafs got hits in each of the first two innings, stranding men on second both times, and left a runner on after Lange's walk in the third. The best chance to score came in the fifth when Reeves and Smith started the inning with singles, but USF got a fielder's choice, a strikeout and a groundout to get out of the inning.
Tanner Gaff took the win for Saint Francis, striking out 9 and allowing 4 hits in 6 innings before Sullivan saved the game. Kyle Staelgraeve went the distance for GC and fanned 6.
Each team had 5 hits, meaning that they combined for fewer hits in game two than either side had on its own in game one. Valdes-Sandoval registered 3 hits and Reeves had 2 with a walk.
Saturday, Game 1: Saint Francis 13, Goshen 3, 7 innings (box score)
With the wind blowing straight out to left at 23 miles an hour, neither team scored in the first two innings before the bats came alive in the third. The Cougars got a two-out rally after a fielding error as Noah Freimuth hit a sacrifice fly for the second out and Prince and McCowin both followed with 2-run singles. Lange and Morgan Baker each drew bases-loaded walks for GC in the bottom of the frame and Ryan Glithero added an RBI single to pull within 5-3.
Saint Francis added another two-out run on a Sullivan single in the fourth and three more in the sixth on a Sullivan single and a McCowin homer. Sullivan's bases-loaded walk made it 10-3 in the seventh before McCowin added a sacrifice fly and Jacob Nagy chipped in a 2-out double.
The Maple Leafs had baserunners in every inning but the seventh, and when that inning ended, the run rule kicked in.
Sullivan led USF with three hits, including a double, while Nagy added 2 doubles and McCowin also recorded 2 hits. Willis and Rodammer chipped in 2 hits each for GC.
Goshen used four pitchers for the game, striking out 7 in the process, while Grossman took the win for USF after four innings of shutout relief.
Saturday, Game 2: Saint Francis 10, Goshen 2 (box score)
USF took the lead before its first out on a Freimuth double that scored Brunson and Sullivan, and Freimuth scored on a ground ball later in the first that made it 3-0. Rodammer tripled to score pinch-runner Gabe Kermode in the bottom of the inning and GC left the go-ahead run on base to end the third.
Harris added an RBI groundout in the top of the fourth and a throwing error brought home a second run to make it 5-1. Glithero's one-out single led the Leafs to a run in the bottom of the frame as the team again stranded the tying run.
USF continued its offense with a 2-run homer from Valdes-Sandoval in the fifth, a run on a throwing error in the sixth and a Harris double in the seventh. Goshen registered one hit in the final three innings against the Cougar bullpen.
Freimuth got the start for USF and struck out 5 while allowing 4 hits and 6 walks in 7 innings. GC used four pitchers, with Benjamin Witterstaetter doing the bulk of the work in 4 innings out of the bullpen.
Evan Creager had 2 hits, including a double, for the Leafs. Saint Francis got 2 hits from McCowin while Valdes-Sandoval knocked in 3 and Freimuth 2.
Up Next: Goshen is idle until its Easter weekend series with Spring Arbor University comes around on Friday and Saturday. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. Friday afternoon and 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon at Sarge Yoder Field.
