Bass Sets Two Program-Records as TU Splits with IWU
UPLAND, Ind. – The No. 24 Taylor University baseball team hosted cross-county rival, Indiana Wesleyan (26-19, 19-11 CL), on Thursday evening, after which the Trojans left the field with a split day-one doubleheader with the Wildcats.
Indiana Wesleyan took game one by a final score of 11-7, outhitting the Trojans seventeen-to-six along the way. Senior ace, Luke Shively (9-1), picked up his first loss of the 2022 campaign, surrendering six earned runs in five innings of work.
As a significant silver lining in game one, however, junior, TJ Bass, established two new TU baseball program-records with a single swing of the bat. While down 9-3 in the bottom half of the eighth inning, Bass stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and his season-home run and RBI-totals at 16 and 67, respectively.
The native of Greenwood, Indiana, then smashed a line drive to dead center, surpassing the reach of the Wildcat centerfielder and the boundary of the centerfield fence en route to his fourth grand slam of the season. Bass’s momentous swing not only made it a 9-7 ballgame, but it also rooted him as the single-season program-record holder for both home runs and RBI.
Bass now boasts a total of 17 home runs and 71 RBI for the year, the former surpassing Jared Atkins’ previous program-record of 16 and the latter surging past Ryne Otis’s previous record of 68 runs-batted-in in a single season. Even more, Bass’s 71 RBI is now the most among any batter in the entire NAIA.
Still, the comeback-bid would not come to fruition, as Indiana Wesleyan tacked on two more in ninth and won game one by a final score of 11-7.
The day ended on a high note, though, as Taylor posted three runs on the board in the first inning en route to a 6-3 game-two victory.
The first four Trojans reached base in the bottom of the first, with Nick Rusche leading it off with a walk. Camden Knepp, Bass, and freshman, Kaleb Kolpien, then followed with three-consecutive singles, the last of which brought Rusche home to score.
Jacob Morris, then, drove the second run of the inning home on a sacrifice-fly to deep center, before the Trojans benefited from a Wildcat error to establish the early 3-0 lead.
Indiana Wesleyan would score three of the game’s next four runs, though, making it a 4-3 game by the sixth inning, the top-half of which ended with a momentous strikeout by Taylor starting pitcher, Noah Huseman.
Huseman (5-3) finished his day on that note, traversing six innings of work while scattering five hits and two walks in the midst of nine strikeouts. The senior righty now has 80 total whiffs on the season, a mark that now sits third in the Crossroads League.
Taylor, then, rode the momentum of Huseman’s big strikeout to transform its one-run lead to a three-run cushion heading into the seventh and final inning.
Kolpien took center stage in each the bottom-half of the sixth and the top-half of the seventh, just about single-handedly securing the game-two win for the Trojans.
The freshman lefty, first, pulled a two-run two-out single through the right side of the infield, driving home Knepp and Rusche, each of whom finished the game with two runs-scored apiece. As if that was not enough, however, Kolpien then took the mound in the seventh and sat the Wildcats’ top of the lineup down one-two-three, earning his sixth save of the season.
Taylor’s game-two winner was especially significant, as it kept the Trojans within one game of first-place Mount Vernon Nazarene in the league’s standings.
No. 24 Taylor (31-15, 21-9 CL) and Indiana Wesleyan are back in action Saturday afternoon, April 23rd, when the two teams complete their four-game series at Winterholter Field with first pitch set for 1:00 pm.
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