TU Softball Pushes Past Bethel and Grace to Advance
Bethel Box I Grace Box I Tourney Central I Bracket I Audio I Video/Live Stats I Photos
INDIANAPOLIS – Taylor softball is one of three teams still vying for a Crossroads League Tournament title following a 10-2 win over Bethel and a thrilling 5-4 victory over Grace on Thursday.
Taylor, the defending 2014 Crossroads League Tournament champions, have now won three consecutive games and will need three more on Friday to claim another title and an automatic berth into the NAIA National Tournament
The Taylor offense produced two big innings in the day's opener against Bethel, plating six runs in the second frame and four more in the third to cruise to the 10-2 win in just five innings played.
The Trojans batted through the order in the big second inning and had six different players tally an RBI to establish the 6-0 advantage. Bethel scored its only two runs of the game in the third to make it 6-2, but Taylor responded and put the game out of reach.
Taylor had 12 hits in the run-rule shortened game. Alex Lovelace had a bases clearing, two-RBI triple in the third and finished the contest a perfect 3-3 with a walk, two runs scored and three RBI, while Anna Gunderson had two RBI of her own. In addition to Lovelace, three other batters had multi-hit games as Erin Tice went 3-3 with two runs scored and an RBI, Jessica Britt went 2-3 with an RBI and two runs scored, and Davis Carter was 2-3 with an RBI and a run scored.
Hannah Klebesadel earned the win in the circle to push her record to 13-3 this season, allowing just three hits and two runs with three strikeouts in four innings pitched. Maddie Cornell came in to pitch the fifth and held the Pilots hitless with one walk and one strikeout.
The No. 3 seeded Taylor and the No. 4 seed Grace met in day two's final game, and the Trojans made it four-out-of five on the season against the Lancers with the 5-4 result to advance to Friday's play.
Taylor struck first with one run in the second as Hannah Robbins came around after a Grace throwing error.
The Lancers scored two in the bottom of the second to claim a 2-1 lead, but the slim advantage did not last long as Taylor manufactured four runs in the fourth to make the score 5-2. The starting pitcher Ashley Miller had led things off, turning on a pitch to drive her eighth dinger of the season well over the left field fence and just inside the foul pole for the equalizer.
The next two batters in Carter and Robbins were able to reach safely, and Taylor took advantage of two Lancer miscues to score a run prior to a two-RBI single up the middle from Lovelace.
Back-to-back Grace hits in the fifth, including a deep drive off the top of the wall by Clarissa Knight, cut the Taylor lead to 5-4 after five innings played. The Trojans however tightened up defensively and made countless clutch plays in the sixth and seventh, as Grace never was really able to threaten.
Miller needed just three pitches in the sixth to retire the side, and in the seventh the Lancers had just a two-out single before Miller induced a ground ball for the Britt to Gunderson putout at second base to seal the deal. The junior Miller picked up her fifth win of the season with the complete game performance in just her ninth start, conceding just two earned runs on eight hits, just one walk and a strikeout.
With the win, Taylor improved to 35-15 overall in its 50th game of the season. The Trojans will next face the No. 5 seed Huntington on Friday at 11:00 am in another elimination game, with the winner advancing to the championship game against Indiana Wesleyan. If Taylor is able to get past the Foresters, it will meet cross-county rival Indiana Wesleyan at 1:00 pm. The Wildcats have yet to lose in the double-elimination tournament, and so a 3:00 pm game will also be played if necessary to determine the tournament champion.