MARION, Ind. – Jeff Morton hit three home runs on the day as the Wildcats used their eight homers to push past the Maple Leafs in Marion on Good Friday. IWU won game one 14-2 and game two 13-6 – each in seven innings.
Evan Salmon hit the first of three Wildcats home runs in game one – a two-run shot in the first with two outs. He brought in another run in the third on a single to center, making the score 3-0. Indiana Wesleyan had a walk with the bases loaded and a sac fly to score twice more in the inning and go up 5-0.
Two more home runs came in the fourth inning off the bats of Denver Blinn and Jeff Morton. Down 8-0, Goshen's
Joshua Rubio put matters into his own hands by smacking a two-run shot that scored
Evan Creager and cut the deficit to six.
However, Salmon and Blinn still weren't done yet. Blinn hit a two-RBI single to center in the bottom of the fifth, and two more runners scored when Salmon doubled to left later in the inning. IWU scored four times in the fifth and added two more in the sixth to win game one by run rule, 14-2.
Salmon was 3-4 with five RBIs. Blinn went 2-3 with three runs and three RBIs. The Maple Leafs went through six pitchers in the game, but the loss went to starter
Evan Creager. He allowed two runs in his one inning pitched.
Kaleb Bodfish had the best outing of Goshen's pitchers – striking out two, walking none, and not allowing any hits in his one inning on the mound.
Goshen managed just three hits offensively. Besides Rubio's homer,
Peyton Smith and
Evan Creager each hit singles. Indiana Wesleyan's Hunter Hoffman struck out 11 in five innings pitched.
The Leafs offense struck early in game two, but IWU found their swing again in the third, fourth, and fifth innings. The Wildcats connected on five homers – putting their total for the day at eight.
Camm Nickell and
Morgan Baker each hit RBI doubles in the first, followed by Creager's single that scored Baker and
Joseph Cerda. Goshen kept that 4-0 lead until the bottom of the third. At that point, Morton and Salmon hit their second homers of the day, and the teams were tied at the end of four.
In the fourth,
Jenner Rodammer advanced a base on an error before being picked off between second and third.
Giacomo Padilla scored on the play, and GC retook the lead. It wouldn't stay for long, though, as the Wildcats hit two more home runs in the bottom half of the inning. In the fifth, Morton hit his third home run of the day – a three-run shot that pushed the lead to 13-5.
Nickell hit a single to right that brought
Nate Lange home in the seventh, but that was the end for the Leafs in a 13-6 defeat.
Nickell was 3-4 in the game with two doubles, two RBIs, and a run. Rodammer was 2-4 and Creager had two RBIs. For IWU, Morton was 2-4 with two home runs, two runs, and five RBIs. Blinn matched his game one totals with three more runs and three more RBIs.
Peyton Smith got the loss on the mound. He allowed seven earned runs in three innings despite not walking any batters.
Indiana Wesleyan improves to 23-18 and 16-10 in the Crossroads League. They have scored at least eight runs in each of their last four games. Goshen drops to 9-29 and 4-22 in conference play. The teams wrap up the series in Marion tomorrow, Saturday, April 16, at 1:00 pm.
