Runs-Galore Powers a Key Trojan Sweep over MVNU
MOUNT VERNON, Ohio. – In a significant Crossroads League matchup, the Taylor University baseball team flexed its offensive muscle by slugging nine home runs en route to 26 runs and a two-game sweep over Mount Vernon Nazarene (25-14, 18-8).
Taylor and MVNU entered the day in a draw for first place in the league, yet after Friday’s events the Trojans now boast a two-game advantage over their conference foe to the east.
The runs rained down like a steady summer shower throughout the day, with Taylor posting multiple runs on the board in seven innings, and three-or-more runs in five frames throughout the doubleheader.
Junior leftfielder, Jacob Morris, led the run-parade with nine runs-batted-in combined between the two games, including a career-high seven RBI in game two, a game in which he was one of three Trojans to hit multiple home runs.
TJ Bass and Conner Crawford duked it out with Morris in Taylor’s 17-9 game-two victory, each of whom contributed two additional home runs apiece, granting Taylor a total of six home runs in the seven-inning game.
Bass now has 16 home runs on the season, which ties the program-record for home runs hit in a single season set by Jared Atkins in 2017. Meanwhile, the junior’s RBI-total has crept up to 66, a mark that both leads the league and the nation, and sits a shy two ticks beneath Ryne Otis’s single-season program-record of 68.
Not to go unnoticed, though, is the senior, Crawford, who now boasts 13 home runs and 61 RBI, the latter of which being the nation’s fourth-highest mark.
Furthermore, Luke Shively (9-0) picked up his ninth win of the season in game one as the Trojans secured and sealed a 9-5 edge over the Cougars. Shively’s nine wins is inching toward the TU single-season program-record of 10, most recently achieved by Matt Patton in 2018, meanwhile leads the league and holds of a share of the nation’s fourth-highest mark.
All of that to serve as a preface for Friday’s doubleheader recap, a lens through which to view Taylor’s 9-5 and 17-9 victories over Mount Vernon Nazarene.
In game one, the Trojans established an early 1-0 lead, which quickly morphed into a 2-1 Cougar advantage. That is, until Taylor scored four runs in the fifth, a rally sparked by home runs hit by the TU duo, Bass and Crawford.
That 5-2 Trojan lead was trimmed to a one-run advantage after six innings of play, though, marking the moment in the game when Shively turned the ball over the bullpen. Nonetheless, the senior standout picked up his league-leading ninth win of the season while allowing three earned runs and striking out seven Cougar batters throughout his six innings of work.
From there, Jack Ross took over on the mound and completed the final three innings of the game while surrendering just one run to pick up his second save of the season. Along the way, Taylor tacked on four more runs to secure the 9-5 win, including a home run hit by Michael Pinarski in the ninth, his first of the season.
The Trojan offense, then, burst at the seams in game two, plastering 17 runs on the board, nine of which came in the second and third innings alone.
In the five-run second, Morris and Bass each hit their first home runs of the game, the lefty’s being a three-run homer to right while Bass’s a two-run shot to left. Morris, then, struck his second home run of the game in the very next inning, a third-frame that was previously ignited by a Crawford home run to left-center.
In just two innings, the Trojans blasted four home runs and cultivated a 9-0 lead. That lead, however, was more than cut in half by a five-run Cougar comeback in the bottom half of the third.
Taylor proved resilient, though, scoring two runs in both the fourth and fifth frames to create a 13-8 advantage moving into the sixth inning.
Mount Vernon Nazarene quickly made it a four-run game, though only provoking the Trojan offense to pile on four more in the top half of the seventh to conclude the day with a 17-9 game-two winner.