A Hit and a Miss

Kyle Keck | Echo

The Taylor baseball team marked the season's 20th win Tuesday in its doubleheader with Cleary University at Winterholter Field.

The Trojans split the doubleheader, winning Game One with a 5-0 shutout and falling to Cleary 4-3 in Game Two, which snapped a six-game winning streak.

The Game One victory featured another solid pitching performance by freshman Jamie Bristol. Bristol's outing boosted his record to 5-0 on the season along with 16 strikeouts and a 2.03 ERA.

"What has carried me is just being confident on the mound," Bristol said. "I have an aggressive approach to pitching this year that has helped me get batters out over the plate."

Tossing five scoreless innings wasn't the young gun's only impressive stat, as the freshman allowed a mere two hits and one walk while striking out five batters. Sophomore Logan Rodgers closed the game out on the hill with three strikeouts in two innings.

The fifth inning sparked the TU offense as freshman Jared Adkins drove in two runs with a single. Juniors Lincoln Reed, Jake West and Danny Moorehead joined the party by contributing one RBI each, capping the Trojans' five-run inning. With the Taylor bats making noise, life was a whole lot easier for Bristol on the mound.

"It's huge getting early run support," Bristol said. "The pressure is off, and I was able to pitch more aggressively."

Game Two started with a bang for Taylor as freshman Tanner Watson belted a two-run double to ignite a three-run third inning. Watson's performance was familiar to Taylor fans as the slugger continued his success at the plate by hitting 4-7 with two RBI's and one run in the doubleheader.

The early 3-0 lead favored the Trojans, but it wasn't enough to keep Cleary from knocking down the door. A fourth inning blunder let the Cougars score three unearned runs, due to a Taylor fielding error. Cleary would eventually score one more run in the fifth inning to take Game Two 4-3.

"We became a little too relaxed and allowed them to get back into the game," Watson said. "After that, it was anyone's game and we weren't sharp enough as a team to get it done."

Photograph by Josh Adams