Freshman Kolpien Dubbed CL Player of the Week

Crossroads League Release | TU Honors Page

JACKSON, Mich. – As announced in the latest collection of weekly awards, Taylor freshman, Kaleb Kolpien, has received the first Crossroads League player-of-the-week award of his young career.

The freshman from Fort Wayne, Indiana, has been on a tear to start his collegiate career, recording a base knock in 12 of Taylor's 15 games, including nine multi-hit efforts.

Three of those multi-hit games came this past weekend, when Kolpien led Taylor in its series-win against RV Olivet Nazarene. The Trojans took three of four from the Tigers, as the freshman DH went 9-16 from the dish, including three doubles en route to five runs-batted-in and six runs scored.

Kolpien kicked off the weekend with a four-hit effort that included three runs-batted-in, two runs scored, and a stolen base. As if that was not enough, the freshman took the mound in the final inning with two outs and the tying run at the plate, promptly retiring the final Tiger of the game for his second save of the season and an 8-6 Trojan win.

On day two of the series, Kolpien went a combined 5-8 from the batter's box, scoring four runs while driving-in two and knocking two doubles. In Taylor's 11-1 win over Olivet Nazarene in the series' third game, Kolpien was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to walk-off the game for Taylor's second 10-run mercy-rule win of the season.

A wizard with the bat, Kolpien now has two four-hit games on the season, along with a pair of three-hit efforts, en route to his league-leading 27 hits and the league's second-best batting average of 0.474. Meanwhile, the freshman has scored the league's third most runs with 16 and holds the sixth-best on-base percentage of 0.531.

Kolpien's award marks the second of the season for the Taylor baseball program, joining TJ Bass, who won the award for his performance throughout the week of February 7-13.

Taylor now has a total of 27 CL or MSFA Player-of-the-Week awards during the 2021-2022 year.

Kolpien and the Trojans (9-6) are set to open Crossroads League play on Friday, March 4th, when Taylor travels to Marian (8-6) to take on the Knights at 1:00 pm.