Chris Yingling | Echo
After months of construction, the baseball lights are up and running.
Campus leaders, alumni and students came out to celebrate the dedication of the improved Winterholter Field on Saturday. Led by Vice President for University Advancement Ben Sells, Athletic Director Angie Fincannon, Dean of Students Skip Trudeau, head coach Kyle Gould and President Eugene Habecker, the TU community released purple and gold balloons to celebrate the completion of the second phase of the baseball field development.
"It gives our student athletes a lot of opportunities," Fincannon said. "Putting lights on our baseball field allows our players to go to more classes and allows our fans to come later to see the games. Baseball is the sport that notoriously misses class due to doubleheaders."
Keeping baseball players in class has been a priority for the Athletic Department. While the athletes have not struggled much in classes, having later games takes a weight off their shoulders.
"I am very proud of our team's academic performance as a whole (3.38 team GPA)," Gould said. "Hopefully this allows them to be in all their classes for home games and takes the pressure off of them and their professors that way. We all know it's extra work for their professor to give make-up quizzes, tests or schedule their projects around games so hopefully this takes a lot of the pressure off of everyone in that respect."
Following the dominating 2-0 win over Indiana Wesleyan the night before, Taylor had plenty of pressure to complete the season sweep under the lights.
The IWU bats were strong in the first game as the cross-county rivals jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first six innings of play. However, Taylor took advantage of poor pitching from the Wildcats.
After walks from junior Kevin Fahy and freshman Tanner Watson, junior slugger Danny Moorehead smacked a double into left field, scoring both runners. Junior Jake West followed up with a double of his own, scoring Moorehead to tie it up. Senior Alex Senyshyn and sophomore Nick Saldutti also grabbed RBI singles to increase the lead to 5-3.
While the sixth was the only inning where Taylor scored in Game One, it was enough to knock off the Wildcats.
"One of the strengths of our offense is how deep we are throughout the order," Gould said. "Our guys at the top did a good job of working the count and putting the pressure back on them. Danny Moorehead had the big hit to get us going, and then we were able to continue that approach through the back of our order from (West, Senyshyn and Saldutti)."
The Trojans returned to form in Game Two. A five-run lead formed in the second inning, spurred on by the hitting efforts of junior Brian Moore, Senyshyn, Fahy and Watson. Moorehead also belted a home run, scoring three TU players. The strong Taylor offense spurred the team to a 12-2 Game Two victory.
Junior pitcher Ryan Masters improved to 4-2 with his win over Indiana Wesleyan.
Taylor's four-game stretch of wins against Indiana Wesleyan is the eighth consecutive sweep in team history against the Grant County rivals.
Taylor will take the field again tomorrow against Bethel on the road before returning home for a 5 p.m. doubleheader against Huntington on Tuesday.Photograph by Chris Yingling
