HUNTINGTON, Ind. — Bobby Garcia hit his first career home run Monday afternoon in a rescheduled Crossroads League doubleheader, but the Goshen College baseball team lost to Huntington University by scores of 9-3 and 4-2 at Forest Glen Park.
Kade Gorman registered a quality start, getting charged with 2 earned runs and striking out 5 in 7 innings of work in the opener, but took the loss for the Maple Leafs. Camm Nickell struck out 3 batters in 5 innings of game two and also posted two hits at the plate.
Huntington (24-8, 17-7) jumped in front with a 5-run second inning in the opener, getting a two-run homer from Camden Dice as part of an inning with 4 hits and a pair of errors.
The Maple Leafs (3-30, 2-22) loaded the bases in the fifth on the way to their first run of the day. Gabe Kermode and Reece Willis each singled and Evan Creager walked to pack the sacks before a run crossed the plate on Nate Lange's groundout. In the sixth, Garcia lashed a 2-run double with no one out to bring the tying run to the plate, but his teammates couldn't bring him home.
The Foresters touched up Goshen's bullpen for a four-run eighth inning behind two hit batters and a walk before Ian McCutcheon added a bases-clearing triple. Satchell Wilson and Langston Ginder also drove in runs.
Joey Butz took the win and Gabe Freeman the save for Huntington, allowing 10 hits and striking out 6 on 157 combined pitches. Ginder and Garcia each had 3 hits while McCutcheon, Lange and Huntington third baseman Daniel Lichty had 2 apiece.
In the series finale, Garcia's line drive over the left-field wall gave Goshen a 2-1 lead in the second inning before the Foresters tied the game in the fourth, took the lead in the fifth and held on in the sixth and seventh.
Ginder's leadoff double set up the Foresters for a run on a wild pitch with one away in the first. GC also found success with one out in the second as Austin Bontrager worked a walk before Garcia bid adieu to the 2-2 pitch.
Each team left runners on in its next two trips to the plate before Huntington started its fourth inning with a pair of singles. After a popout for the first out, Goshen tried to turn two on a grounder up the middle, but Ginder reached first safely as the tying run raced home.
Huntington walked the bases loaded in the fifth but escaped the inning, then took the lead on a Lichty homer three pitches into its half of the inning. Two singles and two steals later it was 4-2.
Mason Shinabery retired all four batters he faced to get the save in relief of Brent Turner and Max Meisner. Benjamin Witterstaetter threw a hitless seventh for GC.
Huntington outhit Goshen 10-4 with Wilson racking up 3 hits.
Goshen will return to the field this weekend as it travels to Mishawaka to take on rival Bethel University in the baseball portion of the U.S. Highway 20 Cup rivalry series. The Maple Leafs could go as far as pulling into a tie for Crossroads League postseason contention with a sweep, while a sweep in the other direction would give BU local bragging rights for the second consecutive year. The series is structured as two doubleheaders, beginning at 1 p.m. both Friday and Saturday, at Jenkins Stadium.
