Bass Dubbed NAIA Preseason Baseball All-American

NAIA Preseason Baseball All-America Team | TU Honors

KANSAS CITY – The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics released the 2023 Preseason Baseball All-America team on Monday, a 17-member squad of honorees with one of whom being Taylor senior, TJ Bass.

Bass is the first Taylor baseball player to be named an NAIA Preseason All-American since Ryne Otis did so more than a decade ago in 2012.

The national recognition comes in the wake of Bass's historic 2022 campaign, in which he established a pair of single-season Taylor program records with 23 home runs and 94 runs-batted-in.

Bass was named the 2021 Crossroads League Player of the Year, while becoming the first Trojan in program history to receive an NAIA First-Team All-American nod, which resulted in him also being named the TU Male Athlete of the Year.

The native of Greenwood, Indiana, finished the season leading the Crossroads League in RBI and total bases, while ranking second in home runs, walks, extra-base hits, and slugging percentage. Bass also landed among the league's top-10 in hits, runs scored, on-base percentage and batting average. In sum, Bass landed among the league's top-10 hitters in a remarkable 10 different offensive categories.

At the national level, Bass drove in the nation's second-most RBI in 2021 while also blasting the NAIA's seventh-most home runs. Additionally, his season-total of 162 total bases was good enough for a share of the nation's 14th-best mark.

In 56 total games played, Bass tallied 78 hits, 15 doubles, 41 walks, 58 runs scored, 23 home runs, 94 RBI, and 162 total bases, all the while maintaining a .366 batting average alongside a .473 on-base percentage and a .761 slugging percentage. Bass was also solid on the defensive side of the game, however, posting a fielding percentage of .992 while both traversing the outfield and catching throughout the season.

Throughout his junior season, Bass put together five different stretches of play in which he posted a hitting streak of five games or better, including a season-best nine-game hit streak between April 21 and May 7. Even more, Bass belted multiple home runs in three different games in 2021, while posting three-or-more RBI in an absurd 15 different games.

Bass will look to enact an encore here in 2023, as the No. 24 Trojans are slated to begin the season in Arizona on January 26 at the Coach Calderone Invitational.