(Game 1 Box) (Game 2 Box) (Game 3 Box) SARASOTA, Fla. – After an extra-inning loss in game one, the Goshen College baseball team rebounded to take two-of-three from sister school Eastern Mennonite over the weekend in Sarasota, Florida.
What was a good result for the Maple Leafs came at a somber time as the weekend marked the one-year anniversary of the tragedy that took six lives from the Bluffton University baseball family (click here for related article). Along with Eastern Mennonite and Bluffton, the three Mennonite institutions gathered in Florida for a weekend of baseball, honoring the lives of those who were lost.
On the field, Goshen got off to another fast start, scoring a pair of runs off three hits in the first inning. A single by Darren Tronovich, followed by a walk to Kraig Miller set the stage for Sean Doering, who ripped an RBI single to put the Maple Leafs on the board. Doering would steal second drawing a throw that would allow Miller to score from third to put Goshen up 2-0.
Eastern pounded out four hits and four runs in the fifth, knocking Maple Leaf starter Aaron Coy out of the game on way to taking a 4-2 lead. Goshen would respond in the sixth as Kraig Miller ripped his third home run of the season to tie the game at 6-6.
Scheduled as a seven-inning contest, the squads surged into the ninth inning tied. The Royals would strike in the bottom of the ninth as they took advantage of a Goshen miscue and took a 5-4 win.
Game two of the double-header saw sophomore right-hander Matt Fyfe strike out six and scatter four hits over five and two-thirds innings to pick up his first win of the season. Fyfe gave up two unearned runs, while walking just one. Kraig Miller game on to pitch one and a third scoreless for his first save of the season.
The Maple Leafs would score one in the second, three in the fourth, and added one in the seventh on way to the 5-2 win. Doering led Goshen going 2-for-2 with a run scored and three stolen bases. The Maple Leafs swiped ten bags in the game.
In the series finale, Goshen broke a 5-5 tie in the seventh with grand slams in back-to-back innings to power themselves to a 12-5 series-clinching win.
Down 2-1 in the sixth, Tom McDowell blasted the first of the grand slams with two outs to put Goshen up 5-2. The Royals used four walks and just one hit to score three in the bottom of the inning to knot things back up at 5-5.
With two out in the seventh, Kraig Miller put the Maple Leafs up for good as he hit Goshen's second grand slam in as many innings. Miller's fourth homer of the season gives him 14 RBIs in just ten games.
McDowell ended the day a perfect 4-for-4 with five RBIs, while Miller was 2-for- with three runs scored. Sophomore Shane Kurtz pitched four innings of scoreless relief, giving up just one hit, to earn the win.
Goshen's games for Tuesday, March 4th at Purdue- North Central and Thursday, March 6th vs. Olivet Nazarene have been cancelled due to the weather. Saturday's double-header at Indiana University- South East is still on at this point, but a cold front is set to move through the area over the weekend. Please check back on www.GoLeafs.net often for updates.
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Sophomore Kraig Miller