Bass, Shively Collect NAIA All-American Awards
KANSAS CITY – The Taylor baseball program pulled in a pair of top honors recently, with TJ Bass and Luke Shively earning NAIA All-American honors and becoming just the third set of teammates in the history of the program to reach All-American status in the same season.
The honors for Bass and Shively were the 11th and 12th All-American awards for Taylor baseball in the past 14 seasons. The pair joined the tandems of Nathan Targgart and Jared Adkins in 2017 and Ryne Otis and Rhett Goodmiller in 2012 as the only duos in program history to accomplish the feat together in the same campaign.
Bass made additional history with his NAIA First-Team All-American nod, becoming the first player in the history of TU baseball to be named a First-Team All-American. The junior destroyed the Taylor single-season record books en route to the award, setting new program bests with 23 home runs and 94 runs batted in to shatter the previous marks of 16 home runs by Adkins (2017) and 68 RBI by Otis (2010).
Bass ranked No. 2 in the NAIA in RBI and No. 7 in home runs during the historic 2022 season and added a .366 batting average, a .473 on-base clip and a .761 slugging percentage. The slugging junior and Crossroads League Player of the Year added 58 runs and 15 doubles, while working 41 walks to just 33 strikeouts.
Shively joined Bass on the prestigious list as an Honorable Mention All-American after concluding a record-setting senior season with the Trojans on the bump. The righty hurler and Crossroads League Pitcher of the Year set TU's single-season record with 11 wins, ranking No. 7 in the NAIA in that category this spring.
Shively took over the ace role for Taylor in 2022, going 11-2 with a 2.92 earned-run average and 1.08 WHIP in 92.1 innings of work. Shively completed three of his 15 starts, fanned 9.4 hitters per nine and approached the 100-strikeout mark before ending with 97.
The efforts of Bass and Shively helped No. 25 Taylor to a 41-18 record, a CL Tournament Championship and an appearance in the NAIA National Tournament Opening Round.
Taylor Baseball NAIA All-Americans During Kyle Gould Era
2022 – TJ Bass (First-Team)
2022 – Luke Shively (Honorable Mention)
2021 – Joe Moran (Honorable Mention)
2018 – Matt Patton (Second-Team)
2017 – Nathan Targgart (Honorable Mention)
2017 – Jared Adkins (Honorable Mention)
2016 – Lincoln Reed (Honorable Mention)
2012 – Ryne Otis (Honorable Mention)
2012 – Rhett Goodmiller (Honorable Mention)
2011 – Ryne Otis (Honorable Mention)
2010 – Michael Kraynak (Honorable Mention)
2009 – Michael Kraynak (Honorable Mention)