Kokomo Standard

The No. 24 Taylor baseball team dropped two games to No. 7 Georgia Gwinnett (4-1) on Friday, when two five-run bursts of offense from the Grizzlies ruined the Trojan hopes for victory over a national powerhouse.

After 18 innings of play TU and GCC were even at 17 hits apiece, though Georgia Gwinnett, who has made the NAIA College World Series in four-consecutive seasons, trumped the Trojans 17-5 in the run column. By day's end the Trojans had left a total of 20 runners on base, while the Grizzles stranded just eight.

In each game of the day-night doubleheader Taylor surrendered a five spot to the Grizzles. Outside of those dreaded two innings, however, TU hung tight with the No. 7 team in the land. Even so, the Trojans fell by a final score of 9-4 in the first game and 8-1 in the second.

Taylor scored the first four runs of game one, outhitting the Grizzlies eight-to-one through the first four frames. The early offense started with a Kaleb Kolpien home run to right field in the third, bringing himself and Mason David home to score.

The Trojans then threatened again in the fourth when freshmen duo, Sam Gladd and Ben Kennedy, went first-to-third with two outs, though the Grizzly hurler managed to finish the frame unhurt. Taylor then maintained its offensive pressure in the fifth, benefiting from one of three GGC errors on the day before plating two runs on a pair of two-out base knocks by Camden Knepp and freshman outfielder, Brayden Manning.

Moving into the bottom half of the fifth inning, Taylor held a 4-0 lead while limiting Georgia Gwinnett to just a single hit. That all changed soon enough, however, as the Grizzlies scored five runs on four base knocks in the bottom of the fifth inning.

From there Georgia Gwinnett cruised to victory, plating two more runs in each the sixth and eighth innings to earn a 9-4 win in game one of Friday's doubleheader.

Matt Dutkowski started on the mound for the Trojans, traversing four-and-two-thirds innings of work while responsible for two of the Grizzly runs. Freshman, Gabel Pentecost, then took over with runners on second and third in the fifth inning.

Pentecost (1-1) went to receive the first loss of his career, recording just two outs while allowing three hits and three runs before junior Jack Ross came in and recorded the final 10 outs of the game, six of which came via the strikeout.

TU's offense then stalled in the night cap, failing to score a run until the sixth inning. The Grizzlies meanwhile wasted little time in drawing first blood with a home run in the first inning. Georgia Gwinnett then added a second run in the following frame thanks to speed and small ball. But after two frames, Trojan starter, Alec Holcomb, settled in and posted three-consecutive zeros on the board.

Holcomb (0-1) finished with five innings of work, allowing just three hits while racking in seven strikeouts. Even so, his early two runs-allowed were enough to result in the first loss of his junior season as the Trojan bats struggled to muster sufficient run support.

The Trojans scored their lone run of game two in the sixth inning on an RBI groundout from catcher, Ben Kalbaugh. Though Taylor would threaten at other points in the game, the run column remained fixed at one as Taylor fell by a final score of 8-1.