TU Splits Crossroads League Home-Opener with Huntington
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UPLAND, Ind. – The Taylor softball team earned a split with Huntington in its Crossroads League home-opener on Monday night, taking game two, 5-2, after suffering a 1-0 loss in the opening contest.
TU recorded three runs in the second inning to take a 3-0 lead early in the second game.
Taylor Wilson opened the frame with a single, Lauren Kanai moved Wilson over to second with a sacrifice bunt and Jacqueline Ryals blasted her first-career double, which bounced off the top of the fence back into the field of play, to score Wilson for the Trojans’ first run. Kara Tucker then followed with a walk, before Cassie Kuizin’s single brought home Ryals, and Tucker plated the final run of the inning on a double steal.
Erin Cozad made it a 4-0 Taylor lead in the third, as the sophomore scored from second on a Forester error at third. The Trojans had runners on first and third with one out, but two-straight outs ended the inning.
Huntington (6-5, 5-1 CL) notched its first run of the game in the top of the fourth and added its second and final run of the game in the fifth.
Ryals drove in Wilson for a second time in the fifth, giving Taylor its fifth run of the contest.
HU recorded back-to-back singles with two outs in the seventh to bring the tying run to the plate, but Darby Shaw struck out the next batter to secure TU’s first league win of the season.
Ryals and Wilson powered Taylor to the win, with each providing a pair of hits. Wilson scored twice and Ryals drove in two runs.
The two hits marked the first multi-hit game of Ryals’ career and the two RBIs were also a career-high for the freshman from Brownsburg, Indiana.
In the circle, Courtney Moriarty (1-1) earned her first win of 2018 by surrendering just two hits and no earned runs in four innings, while Shaw picked up her first save with TU.
In the first tilt of the day, Taylor managed just two baserunners and Huntington retired the final 13 Trojans to come to the plate in the 1-0 HU win.
Next up for RV Taylor (7-5, 1-3 CL) is another league doubleheader at Gudakunst Field, as the Trojans host Goshen (9-14, 1-3 CL) on Friday at 4:00 pm.