Kayla Springer | The Echo
The Taylor baseball team saw their 11-game winning streak come to an end on Tuesday as they took on the University of Saint Francis on the Cougars' home field. The Trojans never found their way around the bases, leading to final scores of 2-0 and 1-0 in the Crossroads League doubleheader.
Junior Logan Rodgers commented on the team dynamic after the disappointing sweep.
"It's no surprise that everyone was frustrated after the losses on Tuesday, but we are no strangers to adversity, and we know that we can fight through it and get back to winning games," Rodgers said. "We are just trying to look at it as a learning experience and a chance to make some changes and turn things around."
The Trojans only collected four hits on the day, offering little assistance to sophomores Matt Patton and Jamie Bristol along with Rodgers on the mound. Patton held the Cougars to one earned run over six innings in Game One, while Bristol and Rodgers combined for seven strikeouts to limit Saint Francis to one run in Game Two.
Despite the Trojans' struggles at the plate, head coach Kyle Gould does not want to make too big of a deal of the losses.
"The nature of baseball isn't to go on a big win streak like we had. You never want to overreact (from a bad hitting day)," Gould said. "It's more about playing from your identity and not for it. We have really good hitters on our team, and we'll work on things to help us move forward. It's never easy, and it's not supposed to be easy. Baseball is all about making adjustments, and clearly we need to make a few."
Rodgers echoed this mindset, recognizing the importance of concentrating on each individual game.
"Coach tells us before every game that it is 'Opening Day,' because nothing before that game matters at all. We just need to take it one day at a time," Rodgers said.
The Trojans, now 15-5 in the conference, still hold a three-game lead over Bethel and a four-game lead over Mount Vernon Nazarene in the conference standings. With six games left in the regular season, Taylor will look to get back into a rhythm against Bethel tomorrow at home in a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.
"Photograph by Fayth Glock"
