Trojans Take Down No. 21 Reinhardt in Friday Doubleheader in Georgia
EMERSON, Ga. – On its first night participating in the SouthEast Rumble, hosted by Reinhardt University, the Taylor baseball team took on two top-25 opponents and very nearly came away with two wins.
To start the day, the Trojans battled No. 17 St. Thomas (5-0) but eventually lost 7-6 in extra innings. In game two, though, the Trojans enacted an offensive clinic and defeated No. 21 Reinhardt (4-4) by a score of 12-9.
Behind the strong starting pitching of Noah Huseman in game one, Taylor nurtured a 6-2 lead in the fourth inning against St. Thomas, a lead that lasted until the seventh when the 17th-ranked team in the country began a run of runs that included the game's final five scores. At a pivotal point in that stretch of play, Taylor was just one out away from securing a 6-5 win, but a Bobcat blast over the outfield wall carved the space for an eventual 7-6 St. Thomas win in 11 innings.
Game two proved more favorable for the Trojans, however, as the underdog Trojan offense outpaced the No. 21 team in the nation by a score of 12-9. Taylor posted three multi-run innings throughout the game, including a five-run fourth and a three-run seventh, all the while tallying 17 hits as a team.
Freshman, Kaleb Kolpien, led the way for the Trojans in the hit-category with a season-best four knocks, now posting multi-hit games in six of his first seven collegiate games. While the freshman continually found himself on-base, the senior, TJ Bass, relentlessly drove guys in, racking in a career-high six RBI's on two home runs in Taylor's win over the Eagles.
One of Bass's two home runs came in the five-run fourth, when he unleashed a missile into the woods beyond the left-center field wall, sending every squirrel in-sight into a tizzy. Bass's blast was set up by a series of two-out baserunners, ignited by a Jacob Morris double before a Nick Rusche single and a Camden Knepp hit-by-pitch. Then, Bass stepped into the box and returned home with an 8-5 Trojan lead.
The lead did not last as long for long, though, as Reinhardt countered with four runs of its own in the fifth. The seventh inning, then, offered another flip of the script, as Taylor posted three more runs in an effort to take back possession of the lead.
The seventh-inning trio of runs was catalyzed by the freshman, Kolpien, as he flipped a single to left. Conner Crawford and Kade Vander Molen followed with singles of their own, before Michael Pinarski and Morris followed with two more one-baggers, each driving in a run. The third run of the inning came on a 6-4-3 double play, nudging the Trojan lead to two even while the rally fizzled out.
After the seventh, it was an 11-9 ballgame, a score to which Taylor would add one final insurance run. Reliever, Matt Dutkowski (1-0) would not need it, however, as the sophomore posted four-consecutive zeros to end the game.
Accompanying Bass and Kolpien on the offense highlight-reel were senior, Nick Rusche, and junior, Jacob Morris, each contributing three hits of their own.
Bass's seven runs-batted-in on the day now give him a team-leading 13, while Kolpien boosted his team-leading hit total to 14 which bolsters an obnoxious 0.538 batting averaging.
Taylor (3-3) will be back in action tomorrow, Saturday, February 12th, for its final game of the SouthEast Rumble in which the Trojans will take on No. 5 Tennessee Wesleyan (5-1) at 2:00 pm.