TU Rolls over Grace in Friday’s Big Sweep
UPLAND, Ind. – Thanks to a heavy dose of offense and nearly untouchable pitching, the No. 24 Taylor baseball team decidedly took two from Grace (17-31, 10-24 CL) on day-one of its final four-game series of the regular-season. The Trojans out-hit the Lancers by a spacious margin of 26-to-four throughout the day, en route to outscoring the opposition 27-to-nothing.
Perhaps unsurprisingly at this point in the season, TJ Bass led the way in the RBI-category, racking up six more throughout the day and boosting his nation-leading total to 79.
Not far behind, however, was catcher, Ben Kalbaugh, who totaled five RBI on the day, including his fourth home run of the season toward the end of game two.
Jacob Morris also posted some big numbers throughout the day, going four-for-six at the plate along with two walks, all while driving in four runs and scoring three himself.
Senior shortstop, Nick Rusche, continuously set the table for Bass, Kalbaugh, and Morris only recording two outs throughout the doubleheader while going five-for-seven from the dish with five runs scored. Rusche’s league-leading run-total now sits at 63, which gives him 189 for his career to tie Jared Atkins for the second-most in TU program-history. While we’re talking about the history book, Rusche also sits third all-time in program-history with 56-career doubles, after collecting three more throughout the day today.
Meanwhile, senior ace, Luke Shively (10-1), picked up his 10th win of the season, matching the single-season program-record and becoming just the third player in program-history to record 10 wins in a single-season. Shively also increased his program-record total for strikeouts in an individual-career to 285, sitting down eight Lancer batters in game one via the strikeout and snatching back the league-league with 92 at this point in the 2022 season.
Fellow senior, Noah Huseman (6-3), picked up right where Shively left off and shoved throughout game two, traversing six innings of work and allowing just one hit in tandem with eight strikeouts. He now has 88 k’s on the season, which plants Huseman at third-place in the Crossroads League.
The scoresheet in game one was littered with twos, as the Trojan offense posted two runs in four of its eight at-bats. Back-to-back doubles by Rusche and Kaleb Kolpien got the train moving in the first, while two-out RBI-knocks riddled the Lancers throughout the remainder of the game.
Taylor batted .429 in 14 at-bats with two outs in game one, which supported an overall .313-mark with runners in scoring position. Much of the load was carried by the first-five Trojans batters, as they went a combined 10-for-22 at the plate, driving in six runs and scoring seven.
All of that was more than enough for Shively, as he worked eight-scoreless innings, surrendering just two hits and one walk in line with his eight k’s.
Freshman, Conner Miller, then came on to close the game in the ninth, allowing one hit and one walk but keeping the Lancers off the board to seal the 9-0 game-one victory.
Game two got out of hand fairly quickly, as Taylor established a 10-0 lead after three innings of play that culminated with a three-run home run smacked by Bass over the left-field fence.
Refusing to let up, however, the Trojans added six more in the following two innings, including their second five-spot of the game in the fifth inning. This time it was Kalbaugh’s three-run blast that catalyzed the scoring-parade for Taylor.
All the while, Huseman cruised, retiring 14-of-15 Grace batters between the second and sixth innings.
Cy Stanley, then, completed the game-two shutout by making quick work of the Lancers in the top-half of the seventh to secure the 16-0 win.
For those mindful of the Crossroads League standings with the post-season tournament on the horizon, first-place Mount Vernon Nazarene (33-14, 26-8 CL) swept Huntington today to maintain its two-game lead over No. 24 Taylor for the one-seed. For a share of the regular-season league championship, Taylor will need to take two more from Grace on Saturday, and for Huntington (23-20, 20-14 CL) to take two from Mount Vernon Nazarene.
With all that said, Taylor head coach, Kyle Gould, will bring 599-career wins into competition tomorrow, just one away from the 600-career win milestone.
As an exciting close to the 2022 regular-season, No. 24 Taylor (34-16, 24-10 CL) will take the diamond at Winterholter Field for a day-two doubleheader with Grace set to commence at 12:00 pm on Saturday afternoon, April 30th.
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