No. 1 TU Ties Program Record With 24th Straight Win, Clinches Share of CL Regular-Season Title

UPLAND, Ind. – No. 1 Taylor swept Indiana Wesleyan 8-6 and 11-6 on Friday at Winterholter Field, completing a four-game series sweep and tying the program record with its 24th consecutive victory.

The Trojans (42-3, 30-2 CL) matched the 2011 squad's 24-game winning streak while setting a new program record for regular-season victories. TU finished the regular season 20-1 at Winterholter Field and improved to 66-8 (.892) in Crossroads League home games over the past three seasons.

Taylor's potent lineup is averaging 14.5 runs per game over its last 16 contests and leads the NAIA in runs scored (520), team batting average (.363) and on-base percentage (.485) while ranking third in slugging (.658) and fifth in home runs (78).

Ben Kennedy supplied the power during Friday's doubleheader. The senior shortstop hit the first grand slam of his career in the opener to erase a 3-0 IWU lead, then recorded his third career multi-homer game and second against IWU in the nightcap to finish the day 3 for 8 with three homers and eight RBIs. Kennedy finished the four-game series hitting .533 (8 for 15) with four home runs and 12 RBIs, pushing his season total to a career-best 43.

The opener was the tightest game of the series. TU collected 10 hits, four of them home runs. IWU jumped ahead 3-0 in the first on RBI singles from Matthew Drozlek and Ben Seitzinger and a fielder's choice from Nick Wiley. Kennedy answered with a towering grand slam to left, a 410-foot blast off the bat at 105 mph, to put TU on top 4-3.

Roemmich's solo homer to left in the second, a 433-foot shot, extended the lead to 5-3, but the Wildcats clawed back to tie it at 5-5 and take a 6-5 lead in the fourth. The lead lasted one half-inning.

TU trailed twice in the opener, 3-0 and 6-5, but quickly erased each deficit. Schrock hit his fourth homer of the season in the fourth, and Gerig answered with a back-to-back solo shot to put TU ahead 7-6 for good.

Quinn Kunkel delivered a clutch pinch-hit RBI single through the left side with two outs in the fifth to provide a crucial insurance run, and that was enough.

Gage Gongwer earned the win to improve to 5-0, working four scoreless innings of two-hit ball with three strikeouts after relieving starter Lane Lewis in the fourth. The right-hander stranded two runners in each of the fifth and sixth before cruising through a five-pitch seventh.

Nathan Frady earned his first save of the season with two scoreless innings, inducing a pair of crucial double plays to end the eighth and stop a rally in the ninth.

In the nightcap, TU pounded out 13 hits in the seven-inning contest. Kennedy's three-run homer to left center in the third gave TU a 7-1 lead, and his solo shot to center in the fourth made it 10-2.

Rylee Singleton's third home run of the season, a two-run shot to left in the second had given the Trojans early breathing room after a balk scored Brennan Frickel.

Freshman right-hander JT Tabor improved to 6-0 with 4.1 innings of work and four strikeouts. Nick Crabtree worked 1.2 scoreless innings in relief before IWU rallied for four in the seventh. Alec Hershberger came on to record the final two outs and strand the tying run.

Roemmich reached base in both games to extend his streak of reaching safely in every game this season. He pushed his hitting streak to 12 games after going 1 for 3 in the nightcap, and his solo blast in the opener was his 10th home run of the season.

Brayden Manning's single in the nightcap moved him into a tie with TJ Bass for second on TU's all-time hits list with 280.

Malott singled and walked in the nightcap to extend his on-base streak to 16 games. Sutter collected two hits in the nightcap (2 for 4, 2B) and doubled in the opener to extend his hitting streak to nine games. Kaden Wu added an RBI single in the nightcap (1 for 1, RBI).

TU has not dropped a Crossroads League series in five years, a stretch covering 45 consecutive matchups, and improved to 9-1 in its last 10 meetings against the Wildcats. The Trojans hit 16 home runs across the four-game series with at least three in each contest, the most in any series this season. Both teams recorded at least 10 hits in all four games.

With the sweep, TU clinched at least a share of the Crossroads League regular season title – its fourth consecutive. The Trojans close the regular season Thursday-Friday, April 23-24 at No. 24 Marian, which sits six games back entering its series at Grace this weekend.