Trojans Sweep Pilots with their Second Walk-Off Winner
UPLAND, Ind. – In its second-consecutive doubleheader, the Taylor baseball team won the night cap in walk-off fashion as the Trojans completed a sweep of Bethel (9-19, 3-9 CL) in their four-game Crossroads League series.
Junior, TJ Bass, was the guy to post the late-inning heroics in game two, but senior outfielder, Conner Crawford, was especially pivotal for the Trojans in game one, matching a career-high five runs-batted-in while achieving the third multi-home-run game of his career.
The Westerville, Ohio, native scratched the first runs of the game on the board in the second inning, when he blasted his first home run of the game to right center. With one swing of the bat, Crawford made it an early 2-0 game, driving Jacob Morris home, who reached first on an infield-single the at-bat before.
Later in the game, Nick Rusche made it a 3-0 game with an RBI-triple in the fifth, but it was the sixth inning that proved pivotal for the Trojans in their game-one victory.
After Bethel cut its three-run deficit to one with a two-run top half of the sixth, Taylor responded with three of its own in the bottom half to establish a 6-2 lead.
The sixth-inning action for the Taylor bats was ignited when TJ Bass roped a single to left center, reaching first base where Drew Loy came on to run. After two-consecutive fly outs threatened to maintain the Pilot momentum, Morris and Crawford would enact their one-two punch yet again.
This time Morris drew a two-out walk, placing two men on base, before Crawford cleared the bases with a three-run blast to left for his second of the game, accumulating his third, fourth, and fifth RBI along the way.
Meanwhile, a trio of Trojan pitchers paved the way for Taylor's game-one win. Matt Dutkowski (4-0) started on the bump and did the majority of the work for the Trojans, throwing six innings of two-run, three-hit ball, while posting four strikeouts in tandem with zero walks. Furthermore, only one of Dutkowski's two runs was scored as earned, as the sophomore righty worked his third solid outing in-a-row.
Drake Gongwer, then, took the mound to start the seventh inning, but ran into quick trouble, allowing three-consecutive base runners before Kaleb Kolpien came on in relief.
The freshman lefty allowed one of his inherited runners to score on a wild pitch, but then got three-straight Pilot batters to go down swinging to squash the Bethel rally.
Kolpien went on to finish the game on the mound, racking up seven strikeouts in three innings en route to his third save of the season.
In game two, Taylor jumped out to a 4-0 first-inning lead before Bethel mounted a comeback that was eventually stifled by Bass's walk-off single in the seventh.
The first five Trojan batters each reached base in the first, a series that culminated in back-to-back doubles by Kolpien and first baseman, Kade Vander Molen.
Bethel bounced back with three of its own in the third, though soon after Jacob Morris went oppo-taco with a two-run home run to left to make it a 6-3 game.
The Pilots, then, scored the game's next three runs, evening the score at six until Bass's decisive single in the seventh.
Senior leadoff-man, Nick Rusche, however, was the one to set the stage by drawing a one-out walk and subsequently stealing second base. With the game-winning run in scoring position, the league's leader in RBI tacked one more on to his season-total with a sharp single up the middle.
Bass's 39th run-batted-in of the season came after freshman, Conner Miller (2-0), threw a scoreless top half of the seventh, earning his second-career win when Bass ended the game with a final score of 7-6.
Taylor (19-9, 9-3 CL) sits just half a game out of first place in the Crossroads League, after having now won five games in-a-row. The Trojans will look to extend their winning ways on Friday, March 25th, when the Trojans travel to Fort Wayne to play third-place St. Francis (19-8, 8-4 CL).