MISHAWAKA, Ind. - The Goshen baseball team split their doubleheader with Bethel on Saturday at Jenkins Stadium in Mishawaka. Goshen won game one 14-11 and Bethel won 1-0 in game two on a walk-off walk.

Game One
The first game saw 25 runs, 25 hits, 18 walks and 382 pitches between the two teams and lasted three hours and 49 minutes. The teams were scoreless after one, but Goshen went up 2-0 in the second with runs from Trent Sillett and Aidan Calvey. Bethel tied it in the third and it was still 2-2 after five innings. Goshen starter Dakota Perry allowed two earned runs in three innings and Josh Murphy and Corey Brown proceeded to throw an inning each, neither allowing any runs. Between the three pitchers, they walked just one batter.

Troy Griffin hit his second single of the day in the sixth inning and scored Jackson Whittington. Chase Smith was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score Fernando Marte Santana. Smith leads the team by being hit by eight pitches this season. He was hit by a pitch 11 times last year, including four times in a game against Spring Arbor.

Goshen's lead was short-lived, as the Pilots put up four runs in the sixth. Calvey had a sac fly in the seventh to cut Bethel's lead to one, but the home team added another four runs in the seventh. Down five, the Leafs made a rally in the eighth. The inning started with a Bethel error and then Nick Padron singled and Joey Paternostro moved to third on the throw. Axell Espino Montero hit a sac fly to score Paternostro. Then, two Leafs were hit by pitches to load the bases. After the Pilots made a pitching change and recorded the second out of the inning, Aidan Calvey walked in a run to make the score 10-7. Next was a grand slam home run off the bat of Joshua Rubio to give Goshen a one-run lead. The grand slam is the first homer of the season for Rubio and the sixth of his collegiate career.

Bethel tied it in the bottom half of the inning, but GC tacked on three more runs in the ninth, led by Justin Dambruck, who hit a two-RBI double. The Pilots left two on base in the bottom of the ninth and Goshen won 14-11.

Joshua Rubio finished 2-2 for Goshen with the grand slam, three walks, four RBIs and a run. Justin Dambruck had two runs, two RBIs and a double. Also scoring twice was Axell Espino Montero, Trent Sillett, Aidan Calvey and Joey Paternostro. Brandon Wright Barron earned the win, throwing the final 1.2 innings and allowing no earned runs.

Game Two
While game one was an offensive barnburner, game two was a pitching clinic.

Goshen had singles in the top of the first from Axell Espino Montero and Justin Dambruck, but a double play ended the inning. The Leafs would only have one more hit in the game, a single in the fifth from Troy Griffin.

The Pilots didn't get around the basepaths much either with Goshen's Giacomo Padilla on the mound. In his 6.1 innings of work, Padilla allowed just four hits, striking out six batters and walking one. It was still 0-0 in the bottom of the seventh. Bethel got a baserunner from a Goshen error and had runners at first and second with one out. After a pitching change, Josh Murphy came in and walked a batter to load the bases and then walked another to result in the only run scored in the game and a walk-off walk for Bethel.

Padilla had the loss and is 1-2 this season despite having a 2.21 ERA. His ERA is just 1.10 in his last 16.1 innings pitched, but he has an 0-2 record in that span. Opponents are hitting just .139 off of him this season.

Goshen plays their first home games of the season on Friday, March 21, at 1:00 pm against Indiana Wesleyan.