Trojan Pitching Lights Out in Season-Opening Win
MESA, Ariz. – The book for the 2022 season of Taylor baseball opened on Wednesday evening, as the Trojans defeated Kansas Wesleyan (0-2) by a score of 6-2. Senior, Luke Shively, and freshman, Jared Crandall, shoved from the mound, allowing just one combined hit in Taylor's first of four games in the fourth-annual Coach Calderone Invitational.
Shively started on the bump and traversed five innings of work, avoiding barrels at all costs as the senior collected a career-high 10 strikeouts while holding the opponents hitless. The freshman from Noblesville, Indiana, then toed the rubber for the game's final four innings, racking in six k's of his own while allowing just one hit in the eighth inning.
The freshman-senior combo totaled 16 strikeouts against just five walks and hits combined throughout the season-opener, allowing two runs while neither of which were earned. Meanwhile, the Trojan offense unloaded for 11 hits, six of which came in the first two innings.
Senior shortstop, Nick Rusche, ignited the game's action with a triple to the right-center field gap. The senior, then, was swiftly swept home on a double from freshman outfielder, Kaleb Kolpien. The early train kept moving thanks to junior outfielder, TJ Bass, who brought Kolpien home on a line drive through the middle of the field. After a Kade Vander Molen walk and Camden Knepp reaching on an error, Bass came around to score on a Conner Crawford groundout to short.
In this way, Taylor worked a 3-0 lead before Shively even stepped across the line.
A leadoff walk and subsequent defensive miscues enabled Kansas Wesleyan to post two runs of its own in the bottom of the first, but Shively would soon settle in, retiring 14 of his last 16 batters for his first win of the season.
Rusche energized the offense once again in the second inning, this time to the tune of a single followed by a stolen base, setting up Bass for his second run-batted-in of the game.
The game, then, remained 4-2 for the next five innings, while Rusche and Crandall utterly immobilized the Coyotes' offense.
Taylor tacked on two more runs in the eighth, kick-started by Crawford as he picked up his second run-batted-in of the game on a single to left field. The eighth-inning action ignited when catcher, Ben Kalbaugh, reached on an error. Cole Schrock, then, served as the courtesy runner for the catcher and promptly stole second base, before advancing to third on another Knepp single and returning home on Crawford's knock to left.
While Shively (1-0) secured his first win of the season, Crandall earned his first-career save by posting four scoreless innings to close the game, as the Trojans achieved their fifth-consecutive season-opening victory.
Taylor (1-0) returns to action tomorrow, January 27th, at 4:00 pm ET, when the Trojans take on San Diego Christian (1-3) in their second game of the Coach Calderone Invitational.