MAR. 30 — Goshen Drops Pair At Tough Olivet Nazarene
Leafs surrender 20 runs and 24 hits to host Tigers in difficult road swing

Bourbonnais, IL — With a demanding mid-week road swing taking its toll on the Goshen College baseball team, the Leafs dropped a pair of tough losses to Olivet Nazarene University on Thursday by 8-10 and 4-10 scores.

Just 48 hours after making the trek to Elgin, Illinois, the squad returned to its charter bus to make the long drive to Bourbonnais on Thursday, logging over 600 miles for its latest pair of contests.

With its next meaningful home contests still weeks away — Goshen hosts Mid-Central Conference rival Spring Arbor University on Apr. 13 — the Leafs’ still have plenty of time to get further acquainted with their travel gear.

“While we’re not in this to lose games, it (the road swing) is good from a mental toughness perspective,” said Josh Keister, Goshen head coach. “To get to where we want to be (in the postseason) requires us to play on the road. We’ve got to be good enough to step on any field and compete well.”

Goshen (7-21, 2-8) did just that in its first contest on Thursday, putting the host Tigers behind by a 2-0 score to start things off. An Olivet Nazarene error coupled with a single from junior Brian Shelton plated a pair of Leaf runs, putting the pressure on the home team to reclaim the momentum.

Olivet Naz responded with an impressive second- and third-inning stretch, scoring six runs to put Goshen down by a 6-2 score. Keister’s team responded, equaling Olivet Nazarene’s two-inning output with six runs of its own in the fourth and fifth innings. A two-run dinger from junior Nate Colclasure in the fourth inning accounted for two of those scores, as Goshen was able to tie the game at 8-8 heading into the bottom of the fifth.

That tie was short-lived, however, as a Tiger single and walk led off the half-inning in ominous fashion for the Leafs. After Keister pulled senior Greg Koop off the mound in favor of Shelton, the damage had been done. A wild pitch and an error behind the plate allowed one run to score, while a single scored another Olivet runner.

Facing a 10-8 deficit with two offensive trips left, Goshen could not produce scores, charting just one hit in the final two stanzas while leaving just one on base.

Colclasure’s fourth homer of the season led a 2-4 effort from the plate. He drove in four runs as well. Senior Ben Taylor, sophomore Nate Montiel and freshman Kyle Koch all finished 2-4 from the plate, with Koch tallying an RBI. Shelton was 2-3 with two RBI and a run scored. Koop (0-1), while facing just two batters, was debited with the ill-timed loss on the mound.

An early lead in the day’s second contest was also hard to hang onto for Goshen, as the Leafs saw a 1-0 lead after two and a half innings of play dissipate into a 10-1 deficit in the span of four innings. Montiel’s second game-leading single of the day eventually scored on a single RBI from Colclasure, giving the squad a 1-0 lead out of the gates. That advantage was thwarted by an offensive explosion from the Tigers in the middle innings, however, while a three-run seventh inning was far too little, too late for Goshen in a comeback attempt.

Colclasure was again stellar at the plate, going 3-3 with an RBI. Sophomore Mike Staehle finished 1-4 with two runs batted in and a run scored, while Montiel went 1-3 with a run scored. Sophomore Alex Childers finished 1-3. Staehle’s RBI came off a seventh-inning home run, his second blast of the year.

Senior Dan Fensler (0-5) was saddled with the loss on the mound, pitching four and two-thirds innings while striking out one and walking one. Seven of the eight runs scored on Fensler were earned.

Goshen will return to MCC play Saturday afternoon, when the team will again be on the road facing Huntington University. Game time for the first of two is slated for 1 p.m.