TU’s Offense Explodes Versus IWU to Keep Pace in Standings

Broadcast Highlights - Game 2 | TU's 10 Home Runs

UPLAND, Ind. – The 18th-ranked Taylor baseball team (29-13, 22-6 CL) stayed atop the Crossroads League standings with a doubleheader split versus RV Indiana Wesleyan (27-11, 21-7) on a wild Saturday afternoon at Winterholter Field under clear sunny skies. The Trojans smashed 10 home runs on a day that saw 57 total hits, as TU fell in game three 18-17 before taking game four 24-1.

With Taylor having spent most of its pitching staff through the series' first three contests, senior Alec Holcomb (7-2) provided a huge lift in the finale with a brilliant five-inning start, in which he surrendered just one run and three hits to claim his team-leading seventh victory.

Perfect through three innings, Holcomb allowed the Wildcats' only run of the game in the fifth before he exited having thrown an efficient 60 pitches.

Conner Miller, who also tossed one scoreless inning in Saturday's first game, pitched a hitless sixth inning that was backed up by a perfect seventh inning from freshman Alec Hershberger that closed the 24-1 win.

As for TU's bats – they were good.

Fresh off a four-homer fireworks display in game three, Mason David put the Trojans on the board in the finale with a two-run shot that plated Camden Knepp to account for the first runs of the game two batters in. Taylor added two more in the first inning before Luke Picchiotti pulled a home run to right field in the second inning that made it 5-0.

The productive at-bats continued in a three-run third inning with RBIs from Rylee Singleton and Ben Kennedy, and the same duo hit back-to-back long balls in another three-run fourth frame, which ran the score to 11-0.

Things really got fun for the Trojans in the sixth inning when they struck for 13 more runs and emptied their bench in the process.

In that sixth frame, Kennedy continued his monster day with a three-run homer to center field before pinch hitters Fletcher Roemmich, Micah Long, Cal Parr, Nate Hickey and Matthew Roderer all reached base. After Drew Loy also reached, head coach Kyle Gould called on another pinch hitter, game three's starter Matt Dutkowski. Making his first plate appearance since 2022, Dutkowski laced an RBI, opposite-field single to keep the line moving.

The inning was prolonged by Singleton's and pinch hitter Joe Lokos' runs batted in, before Roemmich and Long put the icing on the cake with an RBI-double and a three-run homer, respectively, to make for a final score of 24-1.

Saturday's opener matched the definition of a slug fest, with both teams going punch-for-punch in a game that saw seven multi-run innings.

Sam Gladd tied the game in the bottom of the first with a two-run homer, but IWU kept plating runs as they rolled to an 8-3 advantage through five innings.

In the sixth inning – the same frame TU scored 13 runs in during game four – TU struck for 10 runs, starting with a run-scoring double from Kennedy, who later scored on a wild pitch. Two grand slams in the same inning headlined the Trojans' comeback, though, as Singleton and Brayden Manning launched the big flies to pull Taylor ahead, 13-8.

The Wildcats kept adding on, however, as they led 18-13 going into the bottom of the ninth.

Not to be discouraged, the Trojan offense embarked on a final rally with a two-run double from David and a two-run homer to straightaway center field from Brennan Frickel, but the second-chance comeback ended there in the marathon 18-17 defeat.

Though nine Trojans had multi-hit days, Singleton's nine-RBI, five-hit career day and Kennedy's six-RBI, career-high two-homer day stood out above the rest.

No. 18 Taylor takes to the road for a series at Marian (20-17, 15-11 CL) starting Thursday, April 18, at 1 p.m.