Landry Long | The Echo
An evening marred with errors and saved by big plays allowed the Taylor baseball team to salvage a split in a doubleheader on Tuesday at Spring Arbor.
Despite seven unearned runs given up in the opening game, the Trojans still came away with an 11-7 victory at the quick hands of their batters.
The top four spots in the Trojan lineup went 5-for-15 with 10 runs scored and six RBIs. The top of the first inning saw four runs brought home, while senior Lincoln Reed blasted a grand slam in the fourth to bring in four more runs. Junior Nick Hollowell and freshman Nathan Targgart both brought home run-scoring singles in the sixth inning to push the lead.
Sophomore Tanner Watson and senior Brian Moore both scored twice, while Hollowell crossed the plate a total of three times while picking up two hits.
Junior Luke Hunter pitched well for the Trojans, holding the Cougars to three hits and zero unearned runs in a little over four innings, including nine strikeouts and zero walks. Sophomore Matt Patton finished the deal by earning his second save of the season, holding Spring Arbor to zero runs in the final innings while picking up a pair of strikeouts.
Head coach Kyle Gould acknowledged his team's lackluster performance on the defensive side, but was pleased with some big offensive plays that led to the victory.
"They're a team that has traditionally been at the top of the conference so we've had some good games with them," Gould said. "Neither team played very well to be honest, we made a lot of mistakes, but we were able to overcome them with some big hits."
The second outing was once again marked with mistakes that the bats couldn't make up for as the Trojans came up short to the Cougars 4-10.
Seniors Jake West, Kevin Fahy and Moore each picked up two hits in the loss, while Targgart drove home two runs.
Sophomore Jamie Bristol held Spring Arbor to zero unearned runs in a relief effort on the mound for a little over three innings, while junior Colin Eggleson dealt a scoreless sixth inning.
In a total of five appearances at the plate, Moore collected a total of two hits and three runs. Despite a solid individual effort, he feels that he has room for improvement on both sides of the ball.
"Defensively there's still some plays that personally I can make, and just kind of setting the tone defensively," Moore said. "Team-wise, we didn't play very well defensively, and then offensively just trying to get on base a little more. It doesn't really matter how we get on base, just try to get on base and make things happen and try to score more runs."
While heading into a critical stretch of conference play, Gould appreciates having a player like Moore to set the tone.
"Brian has stolen 20 bases already this year," Gould said. "He's one of the leaders of our team. He's a great competitor, he's a good hitter and incredibly good base runner and has done a nice job at shortstop for us. He's been a four-year starter and he's one of the guys that we certainly count on. When Brian gets on base we score runs. He's an incredibly hard worker, a great teammate and a really competitive guy and he's had a really good season."
While the Trojans are 31 games into the season and 4-1 in conference, the first order of business is to get back to their normal style of play. A total of 30 errors have been accumulated over the past 13 games, while the team only committed 14 errors in the first 19 games of the season.
While the squad has high goals with currently leading the Crossroads League, Gould recognizes the issue at hand.
"I would say our immediate goal is we just have to get back to playing better," Gould said. "We were really good early defensively, so I think the immediate thing is just to play more solid and cut out some of the mistakes. It's very uncharacteristic for us; we have good defensive players. We're currently up a half game in the conference standings and that's always our goal-to win the conference and advance to the national tournament. We just have to start playing better, that's more important than the standings."
Through both the ups and downs that a baseball season will bring, Moore feels blessed to experience them all with his teammates.
"Competing with the guys and going out, just working towards that goal together," Moore said. "It's pretty special when you get a group of guys together that are all working towards that same goal. We're all on the same page; we all love hanging around each other and playing with each other."
The Trojans will next step between the white lines on Saturday as they wrap up a home series with Goshen at 1 p.m.
"Photograph by Josh Adams"
