Taylor and RV Olivet Nazarene Draw Even on Day One
ATHENS, Tenn. – On day one of a two-day weekend series with RV Olivet Nazarene (4-6), the Taylor baseball team came out strong with the bats in game one before being stalled in the encore, splitting a nine-seven doubleheader with the Tigers.
The Trojan offense in game one's nine-inning victory was powered by its three and four batters, junior TJ Bass and freshman Kaleb Kolpien. Bass posted the first runs of the day in the fourth inning on a three-run blast to left center, while Kolpien peppered the field with four hits.
Bass's league-leading fourth home run of the year was set up by two walks, drawn by Nick Rusche and Camden Knepp, and resulted in a 3-0 Taylor lead.
While Bass leads the league in bombs, Kolpien, Taylor's freshman phenom, now leads the league with 22 hits and a remarkable 0.478 batting average.
In addition to his four hits, Kolpien drove in a season-best three runs, including a two-run double in the fifth to make it a 6-0 game. The Fort Wayne, Indiana, native, then, added his third RBI in the seventh on a single up the middle to score Knepp, granting the second baseman his third run of the game.
All the while, Taylor starting pitcher, Luke Shively (3-0), was cruising through the Tiger lineup. Shively worked six scoreless innings, accumulating five strikeouts along the way, before exiting the game with one out in the seventh.
A pair of Trojan errors and two walks created the call to the bullpen, bringing reliever, Jack Ross, into the game with one out, two on, and one Tiger run tacked onto the board. Ross faced three batters, recording a strikeout and a pair of walks, before sophomore, Alec Holcomb, took the mound.
Holcomb ended the short seventh-inning rally in just three-pitches, going on to toss one and a third innings in relief, before Kolpien made the move from DH to closer.
After three runs had scored in the Tiger half of the ninth, and the tying-run stepped to the plate, Kolpien took the rock and recorded the game's final out in two pitches, earning his second save of the season as the Trojans took game one by a score of 8-6.
Game two proved much quieter, albeit just as exciting, as the Tigers walked off with a 2-1 win in the bottom-half of the seventh.
Taylor starting pitcher, Noah Huseman (1-1), threw an absolute gem, carrying a no-hitter into the game's final inning. Through the first six innings of work, Huseman recorded eight strikeouts while allowing just two base runners, one via a Trojan error and the other by a hit-by-pitch.
After allowing his first two base runners of the game, the First-Team All-Crossroads League performer from 2021 retired 11-consecutive batters before allowing his first hit with one out in the seventh.
At that point in the game, Taylor held a 1-0 lead that was nurtured in the third inning, thanks to a Mason David leadoff-single followed by three-consecutive Trojan walks.
Returning to the seventh, though, the lead would soon shift, energized by a triple struck to deep center by the Tiger cleanup-hitter. Olivet Nazarene followed that with two singles and an intentional walk, before the Tigers walked off with their fourth hit of the inning on a game-winning single to right.
The Trojans knocked just two hits themselves throughout the game, both of which came in the third inning, the one by David and the other by catcher, Ben Kalbaugh.
Taylor (7-6) will return to the diamond tomorrow afternoon, February 26th, for two more games against RV Olivet Nazarene. The day will follow today's format as a nine-seven doubleheader, with the first-pitch of game one scheduled for 12:00 pm ET.