GOSHEN, Ind. – The Maple Leafs baseball team is 4-2 over its last six games, with a doubleheader sweep of Grace Christian on Tuesday. Goshen displayed their offense in a game one 17-5 win, and the defense in game two's 3-1 victory.
Fifteen of Goshen's 17 runs came in two of the six innings they were at the plate. An eight-run third inning was highlighted by RBI doubles from
Peyton Smith,
Morgan Baker, and
Nate Lange. Then Goshen walked in two runs and had RBI singles from Baker and
Justin Harris during a seven-run fifth inning.
Kyle Staelgraeve earned the win on the mound for the Leafs. In five innings, he tallied five strikeouts, one walk, and no earned runs allowed.
Offensively, this is the most runs Goshen has scored in a game this season and the most since a 19-5 win over Siena Heights on March 24, 2021. The 16 hits were also a season-high and the team's most since April 26, 2019, in a 12-2 win over Grace.
Nate Lange and
Peyton Smith each had three hits for Goshen – Lange scored three times, and Smith had three RBIs. Baker had four RBIs and two runs, while
Jenner Rodammer displayed two RBIs and three runs.
Game two was won in a much different manner, but still impressive nonetheless.
David Lopez got the nod for GC and threw 6.1 innings. He struck out eight batters and walked just one. He allowed one earned run on four hits. He nearly doubled his previous longest outing, which was 3.1 innings at Taylor.
Goshen's offense started in the second inning when
Gabe Kermode's RBI single scored Baker.
Evan Creager followed that in the third with an RBI single that scored
Peyton Smith. Grace Christian got one run in the fourth, but
Jenner Rodammer answered in the bottom half with a solo shot. The rest of the game was scoreless, and Goshen won 3-1.
Smith was 2-3 in game two with a run. Rodammer,
Joseph Cerda, Creager, and Kermode had the remaining Goshen hits.
Goshen is 4-2 in their last six games. This is their best six-game stretch since going 5-1 from February 29 to March 7 in 2019. The team has also swept two doubleheaders in a 72-hour span – something that hasn't been done since a four-game sweep of Berea College on back-to-back days on March 4-5, 2017.
The Maple Leafs (9-27, 4-20 CL) return to Crossroads League play when they take on Indiana Wesleyan on the road on Friday, April 15. The first pitch for game one is at 3:00 pm.
