By Austin Kight
The Trojans find themselves comfortably in first place of the Crossroads League standings after defeating host Spring Arbor in a double header on Monday. Over the two games, Taylor doubled the scoring of the SAU, outscored the Cougars 16-8 with 8-1 and 8-7 wins.
The big story of the series was senior ace Derek Kinzer (3-4) who threw a complete game, setting the tone for the series. Kinzer allowed only four hits, while retiring eight SAU batters in his dominating seven innings of work.
In the first game, an RBI ground out of the bat of freshman Brian Moore scored junior Jordan Coffey put the Trojans up early 1-0 heading into the bottom of the second.
Taylor's offence was slow to start but a fourth inning rally by the Trojans sparked when a two out RBI single to center field by freshman Jake West scored Coffey. Later that inning a wild pitch by the Cougars allowed senior Taylor Luna to score from third before an RBI singled to left field by senior Luke Hofsommer gave Taylor a 3-1 edge.
The Trojan's bats heated up again in the fifth with an RBI triple to center from freshman Danny Moorehead scoring junior Austin York. A few batters later Moorehead came around to score from a sacrifice fly off the bat of Coffey. The Trojans did not stop there as Luna hit a towering homerun to make it 7-1. Another RBI single from Hofsommer would score freshman Grant Hendershot capping the scoring at 8-1
In the nightcap the Trojans dominated once again as Coffey (4-0) took the mound for Taylor and gave up only three run on six hits in his six innings of work. Jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the second with runs from freshman Kevin Fahy, Hendershot and sophomore Alex Senyshyn, set the stage for Taylor early on in the game. The bats grew quite for the Trojans until the fifth inning, scoring four runs to give Taylor an 8-3-cushion heading into the sixth.
The late game rally by the Trojans would prove to be a significant as the Cougars fought back in the sixth and seventh, scoring five runs to put them within one of Taylor. However, with the tying run on second, Caleb Miller was called from the bullpen and closed out the game, retiring the last batter of the inning.
On Tuesday Taylor (22-12, 17-3 Crossroads) will head to Huntington (9-17, 9-7 Crossroads) for a doubleheader with the first pitch set for 4:30 pm.
