As the weather continues to heat up, so do the Trojans, sweeping host Saint Francis in a double header on Tuesday. With 3-2 and 4-2 victories, Taylor extends its win streak to six straight games, improving their Crossroads League record to 9-1. Their six-game win streak is marked by a 38-6 run differential over the opposition.
In the first game Saint Francis jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on a bases-loaded RBI single by the Cougar's Kyle McKay. The Trojans avoided further damage as Trevor Pulver struck out to end the inning.
The Trojans answered in the second with a leadoff double off the bat of junior first baseman Jordan Coffey who lead the offence attack. Grant Hendershot singled to center field, scoring Coffey before Luke Hofsommer hit a two-out single up the middle to bring in Hendershot to put the Trojans up 2-1 heading into the third.
"I feel like we are definitely playing better," Coffey said. "I think that is a fact that pretty much everybody can see. We have gone through some tough games together as a team and I still believe that we have our best days ahead of us."
Senior pitcher Ryan Baker (4-3), the Trojans' four-year veteran silenced the Cougars bats, throwing five and two-thirds innings and allowing just two runs off on five hits. Sporting a tidy 2.50 ERA on the season, Baker retired nine of the 28 batters he faced, leading the Trojans to the 3-2 victory.
Junior Caleb Miller notched his fourth save of the year, locking down the last four outs of the game.
In the second game of the series, pitching dominated again for both teams as sophomore pitcher Josh DeGraaf took the mound for the Trojans and went the distance, improving to 4-1 on the season. DeGraff allowed only one earned run on eight hits and struck out four in seven strong innings.
The Cougars once again jumped out to an early lead in the first to go up 2-0 on the Trojans. But Taylor's offence sparked in the second to tie things up at 2-2 as Taylor Luna, Brian Moore and Hendershot all reached on base to begin the inning. Luna scored on a wild pitch from Saint Francis and an RBI single to left-center from Hofsommer brought home Moore to tie the game.
Both offences grew quiet until Taylor put up two more runs in the top of the sixth. The Trojans got hits from Kevin Fahy, Luna, Jake West and Diamon Buck, giving DeGraaf a lead heading into the seventh.
"The conditions were tough to play in, but we battled them really well," Buck said. "Not everybody had their best stuff, but we played hard and had great efforts from every player. It was probably the best we have played as a team so far."
As the season progresses the Trojans are becoming more of a threat as a playoff contender. The young team lead by Head Coach Kyle Gould took the non-conference to find their footing but with an outstanding bullpen and well-timed offense, the Trojans have started to click.
"We have been playing the game a lot better and the right way as the season progresses but we definitely have not hit our stride yet," Luna said, "We have more to bring to the table and when we put all the pieces together on the field we will be a very hard team to beat."
