Wednesday’s Poll Posts Taylor Baseball in Nation’s Top-25
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – For the first time since March of 2019, the Taylor baseball team finds itself ranked among the nation’s top-25 teams. In recognition of their prolonged winning ways of late, the Trojans received the 25th rank in the latest NAIA Coaches’ Top-25 Poll.
In its last 13 games, Taylor has blazed a 12-1 record and planted itself atop the Crossroads League standings. Even more impressively, though, the Trojans have posted a 23-6 record since February 18th, at one point winning eight conference games in-a-row and achieving the 1,500 win in program-history.
Along the way, the Trojan offense has been phenomenal, leading the league in runs scored, doubles and walks, while sitting second in home runs and on-base percentage. The pitching, though, has been a pleasantly-improving force of late too, as the Trojan staff leads the league in strikeouts and strikeouts-per-nine while maintaining the second-best earned-run average throughout the league’s most innings pitched.
Individual Trojans scatter the league’s leaderboard, and some even sit atop the national leaderboard, including junior, TJ Bass. The Greenwood, Indiana, native boasts 57 runs-batted-in in just 36 games played, a mark that easily leads the league and sits third in the nation. Furthermore, Bass sits second in the league with 11 home runs and 51 hits, and he holds the third-highest slugging percentage of .705.
Speaking of slugging percentage, Conner Crawford has posted an even higher mark than Bass throughout conference play. Eight home runs, a pair of doubles and a triple bolster a .754 slugging percentage in Crawford’s 20 games played in conference. This strong play of late has lifted Crawford to the league’s second-highest rank in RBI with 50, and a share of the league’s third-highest home run total with 10.
Several other Trojan batters perch at the top of the league’s rankings, though, including freshman standout, Kaleb Kolpien, and senior shortstop, Nick Rusche. The freshman paces the league with 57 hits in his 36 games played, only failing to record a hit in seven of those. Even more, Kolpien has 17 multi-hit games thus far into the season, including three four-hit efforts.
Meanwhile, Rusche has consistently found himself crossing the plate unscathed and currently leads the league with 44 runs scored. The senior leadoff man also has a tendency for two-baggers, as evidenced by 15 doubles on the season, a mark that sits second in the league.
Fellow senior, Luke Shively, has put up ace-like numbers in an effort to lead the Trojan pitching staff. Shively leads the league with eight wins, a 1.36 ERA and 53.0 innings pitched, while sharing the league-lead in strikeouts with teammate, Noah Huseman. Shively’s start to the season is especially noteworthy, as he has become the first Trojan pitcher to work an 8-0 record since 2011.
Additionally, Matt Dutkowski has come on strong of late, now boasting a 5-0 record on the mound for a share of the league’s second-most wins. All the while, Huseman leads the team with an 11.47 strikeout-per-nine mark that sits fourth in the league.
Led by these Trojans and supported by many more, No. 25 Taylor (26-10, 16-4 CL) is set to play its third of a 10-game road trip on Friday, April 8th, when the Trojans take on Spring Arbor (15-16-1, 9-11 CL) at 1:00 pm ET.
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