Trojans Improve to 30-3, Complete Four-Game Sweep of Bethel
UPLAND, Ind. – Six runs down and facing uncharted territory, No. 3 Taylor leaned on its potent lineup.
The Trojans pounded out 30 hits and scored 30 runs across the doubleheader, beating Bethel 18-8 in eight innings and 12-2 in seven to complete a four-game Crossroads League sweep at Winterholter Field on Monday. TU has now reached double figures in runs 19 times this season.
Taylor (30-3, 18-2 CL) has won 12 consecutive games and hasn't dropped a conference series in five years — a stretch that covers 42 straight series. The Trojans' 18-2 start in league play mirrors last season's path, when they were 19-1 in the CL at this same point after sweeping the Pilots.
Luke Sutter was a major factor at the plate all day for the Purple & Gray. The senior outfielder collected a career-high five hits in Game 1, going 5 for 5 with a walk, three doubles and an RBI while scoring three runs. He added two more hits and a three-run homer in the nightcap to finish 7 for 8 across the doubleheader and 10 for 16 (.625) in the four-game series. At the top of the lineup, Sutter and Fletcher Roemmich each reached base six times in the opener alone.
Bethel (6-20, 4-16 CL) came out swinging in Game 1. Trey Delp ripped a two-run double in the first inning, Andrew Dillon added an RBI single, and Angel Alicea launched a two-run homer in the third to build a 6-0 lead — tied for the largest deficit TU has faced this season.
The Trojans scratched one across in the bottom of the third on a Sutter RBI double, then broke through in the fifth. Roemmich walked and Sutter doubled to put runners on second and third, and Brayden Manning, Jordan Malott and Quinn Kunkel delivered three consecutive run-scoring hits to pull TU within 6-5. Malott's two-run double to left center was the big blow of the frame.
One inning later, Malott ended the suspense. With Roemmich and Sutter aboard after a hit-by-pitch and a walk, Malott turned on a 2-2 pitch and launched a towering fly down the left-field line — airborne for more than six seconds at a 50-degree launch angle — that hooked just inside the foul pole for a three-run homer that gave TU its first lead at 8-6.
The blast — his ninth of the season — tied Manning for the team lead. Malott finished with three hits and six RBIs in the opener, tying the most by a Trojan in a single game this season.
Bethel tied it in the seventh on an Alicea RBI double and an unearned run on a throwing error. It stayed knotted at eight for all of two batters. Rylee Singleton doubled to open the bottom of the frame, Kaden Wu singled home the go-ahead run, and then Roemmich — down 0-2 in the count — hammered a three-run homer to left that blew the game open at 12-8.
Malott and Brennan Frickel followed with back-to-back RBI doubles. TU scored six runs on six hits in the seventh and added four more in the eighth, capped by Kunkel's solo homer on the first pitch he saw and Singleton's bases-loaded single off the left-field fence that ended the game via the 10-run rule — TU's eighth run-rule victory this season.
JT Tabor, making his first career relief appearance, earned the win to improve to 3-0 with two innings of one-hit ball. The two teams combined for 34 hits in the opener — 19 by TU, 15 by Bethel. The Trojans' nine doubles were a season high, while Bethel's four doubles were the most allowed by TU pitching this season.
Game 2 required far less drama. Bethel again scored two in the first — Jesse Stout delivered a two-run single — but TU answered with a nine-run third inning that removed all doubt. Manning singled home the tying run, Frickel cracked an RBI double and Luke MacDonald cleared the bases with a two-run double to right center. Sutter capped the frame with his three-run blast to right.
Left-hander Alec Hershberger (1-0) earned his first win of the season with four innings and three strikeouts, and Brayden Stevenson tossed two hitless frames behind him while Blake Osbourne closed out the final frame.
TU hit four home runs on the day, pushing the team's season total to 51. Singleton finished 4 for 6 with three RBIs across both games. Frickel extended his hitting streak to 12 consecutive games — he's batting .579 (22 for 38) during the stretch and leads the Crossroads League with a .462 average.
Alicea paced the Bethel offense with a 4 for 7 day that included a homer, a double and three RBIs in the opener. Walters went 3 for 5 in Game 1, and Delp added three hits and two RBIs.
The Trojans open a four-game Crossroads League series against Saint Francis on Thursday with a doubleheader at Winterholter Field. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. The series concludes with a Saturday doubleheader.