Trojans Fall in Tight Games against IWU
UPLAND, Ind. – Taylor (21-24, 18-16 CL) battled valiantly throughout the night, but came up short, dropping two games against cross-county foe No. 8 Indiana Wesleyan (43-7, 28-4 CL).
Emma West continued her late-season surge, belting five hits, including two doubles to accumulate 18 hits in her past ten games.
In the first game of the evening, a Trojan rally came up just shy, as the Wildcats took game one 3-2.
Taylor had its opportunities early, leaving four runners in scoring position in the first three frames, but failed to capitalize and trailed 3-0 after three innings.
Down by the same score in the sixth, TU mounted a comeback. After a one-out walk from Caitlyn Grim, Mihalic belted a line-drive home run to right-center field, falling beneath the scoreboard at Gudakunst Field, to cut the deficit to one. That finished the scoring, as the Trojans fell by a score of 3-2.
Maddi Evans pitched great in the circle, holding a potent Wildcat offense to only three runs and zero extra-base hits throughout the contest. The righty senior struck out six batters to reach 138 on the season, good for third in the Crossroads League.
Taylor fell in another tight contest, falling 5-3 in extra-innings, in game two.
Both Mackenzie Noah and Cassy Lewis returned to the circle in the nightcap and held Indiana Wesleyan at bay. Noah started and pitched four-and-a-third innings allowing a lone earned run to keep TU in the game. Lewis came in and pitched three-and-a-third innings allowing only two runs in the eighth, while pitching her best game of the season.
After the Wildcats scored three in the top of the third, Taylor responded with three of its own in the bottom of the inning. Lexi Abruzzo battled her way to a walk to begin the frame, before reaching third on West’s second double of the day on a rip to left-center field. Evans, then, belted a long fly ball off the top of the wall to plate Abruzzo and West and get the Trojans within one, before crossing the plate to tie the game on sacrifice fly by Grim.
Taylor had a chance to win the game in the seventh after Abruzzo walked and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by West. She failed to cross the plate as Indiana Wesleyan made a tremendous defensive play to end the inning and went on to score two in the next frame to grab the game two victory 5-3.
Taylor is schedule to finish the regular season on the road Saturday against Spring Arbor (16-28, 10-23 CL). First pitch is at 1:00, as TU finishes up the regular season.
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