Shively Shines as TU Splits with Huntington
UPLAND, Ind. – On day one of its second Crossroads League series of the season, the Taylor baseball team split with Huntington (5-9, 2-3), losing a nail-biter in game two by a score of 8-7 after Luke Shively led the Trojans to a 6-0 win in game one.
The Mishawaka, Indiana, native recorded a career-high 12 strikeouts, while traversing nine-scoreless innings for his second-career complete-game shutout. Shively faced 28 batters in his nine innings of work, a mere one above the 27-batter minimum, while surrendering just a single hit and one walk.
Shively (5-0) bumped his league-leading strikeout total to 46, now through 35.0 innings of work in the 2022 season. Furthermore, Shively became the first pitcher in the league to reach five wins, owning a perfect 5-0 record in tandem with a 1.54 earned-run average, which sits third in the league.
While Shively was rolling along through the Forester lineup, the Trojan bats were late to the party, being held scoreless through the first seven innings of the game. The bats did eventually come alive, though, energizing a six-run eighth.
The stage was set by a Conner Crawford walk, before three-consecutive Trojan hits made it a 3-0 game. Michael Pinarski got the ball rolling with a single to right, moving Crawford to third, where Nick Rusche brought him home with an RBI-double down the left-field line. Camden Knepp, then, brought Pinarski and Rusche home with a two-run single.
After a Forester pitching change and a couple more Taylor baserunners, Kaleb Kolpien struck an RBI-single to left before Jacob Morris established the 6-0 lead with a two-run double to left center.
Kolpien was the lone Trojan to record multiple hits, now the 11th time he has accomplished such a feat in his freshman campaign. Kolpien continues to lead the league with 36 hits, while sharing the league-lead with a .439 batting average.
Meanwhile, Morris and Knepp each drove in two runs, Morris now with 11 RBI on the season while Knepp shares the team's third-highest mark of 17.
Game two got off to a rocky start for the Trojans, falling behind 3-0 after the first and 5-0 heading into the bottom-half of the third.
Starting pitcher, Noah Huseman (2-2), showed grit throughout his outing, surrendering a three-run home run in the first before eventually accumulating eight strikeouts in five-and-two-thirds innings of work. Huseman ended the game having allowed all eight of the Forester runs, though only the three first-inning runs were earned as five Trojan errors aided the Huntington offensive-attack.
While down 5-0 heading into the bottom-half of the third inning, Kade Vander Molen soon put the Trojans on the board with a two-run home run to left, his first of the season.
Huntington, then, experienced an untimely error of its own in the fourth, as TJ Bass collected two RBI on a seemingly harmless fly ball to second base that hit the turf to make it a 5-4 game.
Kade Kolpien, then, tied the game at five in the fifth, when he pinch-hit and recorded the second hit of his career, bringing his brother, Kaleb, home to score.
Huntington stole the lead back in the sixth, however, as two Trojan throwing errors set the Forester offense in motion and put an end to Huseman's night. At that point, Kaleb Kolpien made the move from DH to the mound, recording the final out of the sixth after allowing two hits.
Luke Carlson and Jack Ross, then, worked together to record three outs in the top of the seventh, after which Taylor had one final opportunity to cut into the 8-5 Huntington lead.
The Trojans wasted no time in capitalizing on that opportunity, as Morris drew a lead-off walk that was followed by a two-run home run roped to left by Crawford. The comeback bid fell short, however, as the game ended on a line-drive double play that Rusche smacked to the second baseman.
Even in light of the Trojan loss in game two, Crawford's home run is noteworthy as further evidence on his clutch-nature in the box, now hauling in 13 RBI in his last five games. Crawford now has 28 on the season, trailing only teammate, TJ Bass, in the league rankings.
Taylor (14-8, 4-2) is set to complete the four-game series with Huntington on Monday, March 14th, right back at Winterholter Field. Stayed tuned to TaylorTrojans.com for more information regarding game times and coverage links.