No. 19 Trojans Score in All but Four Innings of Doubleheader Rout

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The No. 19 Taylor baseball team (9-4) came away with a pair of convincing wins by scores of 15-3 and 8-0 over Madonna (5-3) Saturday afternoon in frigid temperatures on neutral turf.

TU gave eight of its pitchers at least one inning of work in the shortened series, while the lineup gave the staff plenty of room to work with by plating at least one run in 10 of a possible 14 innings on the day.

Gabel Pentecost (3-1) took the mound to get the action started in game one, and he worked around a single and a walk through his two innings by striking out three men and picking a runner off second to put zeros on the scoreboard.

By the time Brody Fine was lined up for his to turn to pitch in the third inning, the Trojans had spotted him a 6-0 lead behind plenty of hit by pitches, walks, baserunning activity and – finally – a double and single off the bats of Mason David and Brayden Manning, respectively.

Fine pitched a scoreless third frame before MU hit a solo homer in the top of the fourth to make it 6-1, TU, but the righty recovered with a pair of strikeouts to keep the five-run advantage intact.

The Trojans added on with small-ball paying dividends in a six-run fifth inning, as David and Manning again did damage with two-run singles to their credit. Taylor increased its advantage to 15-2 in the seventh, capped by an RBI single from Rylee Singleton.

Wes Hunt tossed four innings of one-run ball to save Taylor's bullpen, as only Conner Miller was needed for the final frame to put the finishing touches on game one.

Game two saw the Trojans again set up their oft-used arms for work. Jake Boyer (1-0), Gage Gongwer, Nathan Frady and Dalton Swinehart combined for the seven-inning shutout, TU's first of the season.

Once again, Taylor's lineup tacked on early and often with David, Sam Gladd, Fletcher Roemmich and Ben Kennedy each notching multi-hit games.

Gladd got the scoring started with his first-inning sacrifice fly, and his bat heated up with a homer and RBI double, respectively, in the third and fourth frames.

Kennedy plated runs in consecutive innings with a double and a single, while David also drove in two runs during the nightcap. Kaleb Kolpien delivered an RBI single in the fifth for the Trojans' eighth and final run.

On the mound, Gongwer and Frady sent down nine Crusaders in a row during their innings, while Swinehart collected four strikeouts in just two frames to conclude the day.

David tallied four hits and four RBIs across the doubleheader, and his run-production was matched by four RBIs from Gladd.

The two victories brought coach Kyle Gould's career total to 699 head-coaching wins, all of which have come in his 20-plus seasons at the helm of the Trojans.

19th-ranked Taylor is slated to open Crossroads League play with a doubleheader in Kokomo, Indiana, at noon on Wednesday versus Grace (3-4). The four-game series is then slated to return to Upland for a doubleheader on Friday, Feb. 28.