Kolpien, Pentecost Reach High-Water Program Marks as Season Ends in Opening Round
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UPLAND, Ind. – A 2025 season for No. 9 Taylor baseball (47-11) that saw the program shatter single-season records for most victories and best winning percentage (.810) ended abruptly Wednesday afternoon at Winterholter Field in the NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round.
TU began the day by resuming play in its overnight-suspended game versus RV Kansas Wesleyan, a tough 7-5 loss in which the Trojans could not overcome a two-out grand slam in the fifth inning by KWU’s Garrett Garfield. The day ended with RV Grand View scoring nine of the game’s final 10 runs in an 11-10 defeat for Taylor.
Despite the heartbreaking results, Gabel Pentecost soared to new heights with an eight-strikeout game that set the new single-season program record for strikeouts at 116, passing the previous high of 111 (Joe Moran, 2021).
Kaleb Kolpien, too, tied his own single-season record of 98 hits after a pair of 2-for-4 performances Wednesday. Kolpien finishes his career at TU with a program-best 327 hits while carrying a .406 average, just one point off the program’s career record of .407 (Rhett Goodmiller, 2010-2012).
The first three innings of action between top-seeded Taylor and third-seeded Kansas Wesleyan (41-13) were scoreless, with Pentecost notching his record-setting strikeout in the second frame on a breaking ball that locked up the Coyote batter. The Fremont, Indiana native and TU ace struck out the side in the third inning, ultimately completing his day going 4.2 frames giving up three runs.
The Trojans, serving as the road team versus KWU, struck first on a homer by Luke Sutter in the fourth inning.
The Coyotes took the lead with a two-run shot in the bottom of the fourth, and they extended their advantage to 6-1 on the game-deciding grand slam in the fifth.
TU fought back with a solo homer by Brayden Manning in the sixth, but the Opening Round hosts saw their deficit slip back to five runs, 7-2, after the seventh inning.
Ben Kennedy gave the Trojans hope with a two-out, three-run blast to right-center field in the eighth, but – despite three more hits to follow from the Purple and Grey in the contest – it was not enough.
Nathan Frady highlighted the bullpen efforts against the Coyotes with two strikeouts and no runs allowed in 1.2 innings of work.
In the season finale versus fourth-seeded Grand View (36-12), walks drawn by Mason David and Sam Gladd complemented four first-inning doubles from Kolpien, Sutter, Kennedy and Fletcher Roemmich, respectively, that handed the Trojans a commanding 5-0 edge through one frame.
Starting pitcher Brody Fine put up zeroes through two innings, yet a two-out, two-RBI hit in the third for the Vikings cut the Trojan lead to 5-2.
Taylor seemingly took control of the game with a four-run fourth inning, however, in which Gladd notched a sacrifice fly and Kennedy delivered an RBI single.
GV cut into the lead again in the fifth inning with a three-run homer, but the Trojans pushed the score back up to 10-5 on Sutter’s RBI double.
TU’s lead slowly slipped with three home runs allowed over the next two frames, and the Vikings ultimately got the go-ahead run on an RBI single in the seventh.
Conner Miller, Lane Lewis and Jake Boyer allowed no earned runs in a combined 3.2 innings of work out of the bullpen in the contest.
On the day, Sutter led all Trojans at the plate with six hits, and Kennedy drove in a team-high six runs. Roemmich also closed his season on a high note with a pair of multi-hit games.
No. 9 Taylor ends 2025 holding single-season team records in on-base percentage, slugging percentage, hits, runs, total bases, RBIs, walks and hit-by-pitches. The national tournament appearance marked the program’s fourth straight and 10th overall, and the Trojans earned their 11th all-time win in the Opening Round during the 2025 tournament.