APR. 5 — Leafs Get Bats Going Against Thunder At Cove
Goshen makes most of playing in minor league ballpark with 16-10 win

South Bend — On a beautiful day at Stanley Coveleski Regional Stadium — home of the South Bend Silver Hawks minor league baseball team, the class A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks — Goshen was able to make the most out of their day at ‘The Cove’ getting an offensive outpouring to score 16 runs. In a game of ups and downs the Leafs came out on top in the end, defeating Tri-State University by a 16-10 score.

Senior Dan Samaritoni (2-1) picked up is second win of the season from the mound as he came in to relieve junior Dan Fensler in the third. Sophomore Dan Hunt came in and finished the game in the ninth inning.

"Fensler is still not back to his form of last year, but he was getting them to hit ground balls,” said head coach Jayson Best. “Samaritoni came on in relief to get the win. He continues to throw strikes and be effective for us on the hill and Dan Hunt came on to finish out the game. Dan is getting to the point where he throws strikes consistently and when he does that he is tough to score against.”

Sophomore Nate Colclasure was able to start things off in the first inning when he came to bat with two runners on. He hit his fifth home run of the year to put Goshen up 3-0. Things continued to look good as the Leafs added a fourth run in the third inning. However, Tri-State had something else in mind. They exploded for eight runs in the third inning, giving them the lead at 4-8.

Goshen came right back in the fourth as Colclasure collected his second hit of the day with an RBI single. Junior Ben Taylor followed that with a two run double to cut the Tri-State lead to 7-8. The Thunder then got two more in the fifth to push their lead to three at 7-10. They also held the Leafs scoreless in the fifth and sixth innings.

Freshman Mike Staehle would then come up huge with his pinch-hit three run home run in the top of the seventh inning to tie the game. Junior Greg Koop gave Goshen the lead at 11-10 with his RBI single in the eighth.

Staehle would lead off the ninth inning with his second home run of the game. Following that freshman Tom McDowell was hit by a pitch and sophomore Casey Cavell and senior Erik Hisner each drew a walk to load the bases. McDowell was forced out at home, but Taylor struck for his second two run hit of the game with his single. Senior Brad Miller singled to hit in Taylor making the final score 16-10.

"Obviously I am pleased with our offensive output today,” said Best. “We are finally starting to have games where we put everything together. Defensively many of the hits we gave up were hard ground balls through a fast infield. On most days we’ll have a chance to get to those and make plays.”

Colclasure led the Leafs on the day going 2-4 with a home run, four RBI’s and scoring five runs. Staehle was 2-2 with two home runs, four RBI’s and two runs. Taylor was 3-4, also with four RBI’s on the day and he scored one run. Cavell was 2-4 scoring two runs, while Koop and Miller each collected two hits going 2-5 with an RBI and run scored. Hisner was 1-4 with a run scored.

Goshen will next travel to take on Siena Heights University on Thursday, April 7. That contest is set to begin at 3:30 p.m.