Carter's Eight RBI Lead Taylor to Sweep of Grace
WINONA LAKE, Ind. – The Taylor softball team collected convincing wins of 10-3 and 12-2 over Grace on Monday to sweep the season series with the Lancers, with senior Davis Carter's five hits and eight runs batted in on the day pacing the Purple and Gold.
TU led, 3-2, through three innings in game one, but four runs by the Trojans in the fourth broke open a 7-2 lead. Kara Tucker and Courtney Moriarty produced back-to-back RBI singles with one out, and Carter brought home the final two runs of the inning with a two-out single.
Grace (12-30, 6-22 CL) got an RBI single of its own in the bottom-half of the fourth to trim the TU advantage to 7-3, but a two-run homer by Cassie Kuizin in the fifth made it a 9-3 ballgame, and Taylor added one more in the seventh to make the final tally.
Kuizin and Cozad each reached base four times and scored three times, as Kuizin went 2-for-3 with two walks, a home run and two runs batted in, and Cozad was 2-for-2 with two walks. Tucker and Carter posted matching 2-for-4 days with two RBI apiece, while Tucker added two runs scored.
Moriarty (5-2) earned her career-best fourth-straight win in the circle, going four innings and striking out three. Shaw picked up her second save of the season by pitching the final three frames without allowing a run.
The second outing was completely owned by Taylor, as the Trojans jumped out to a 12-0 lead entering the bottom of the fifth. Grace plated a pair of runs in the home-half of the stanza, but it was not enough to stave off the run-rule victory for TU.
Carter went 3-for-4 at the dish and recorded a career-high six RBI, with at least one run driven in during each of her four plate appearances. The All-American notched an RBI groundout in the first, an RBI single in the third, a two-run single in the fourth and a two-run double in the fifth.
Hannah Castor, Lauren Kanai and Moriarty each added two hits apiece to the Trojan attack, which produced 23 hits and 22 runs over the course of the doubleheader.
On the rubber, Kanai (11-4) scattered six hits and allowed two earned runs, while striking out two in pitching all five innings to notch her 11th win for TU.
Taylor (24-10, 18-8 CL) will look to extend its eight-game winning streak when it hosts Bethel (5-33, 4-26 CL) for two games at Gudakunst Field on Tuesday, with the first pitch set for 3:00 pm. TU defeated the Pilots, 18-0 and 7-1, at Bethel in the first doubleheader between the squads on March 30.