BASEBALL

In a critical matchup between the top two teams in the league, the HU baseball team came up short both times to the #RV Trojans of Taylor University, 15-11, 4-2, Thursday afternoon at Winterholter Field.

Game one was a homerun derby with TU sailing more balls out of the park than Huntington to cash in on the win. The hosts cranked out eight homers which accounted for 12 of their 15 runs.

Taylor did most of their damage in the first five frames after which they scored just once but it proved more than enough to hold onto their lead for the win. The hosts had to battle back from an early deficit after the Foresters put up four runs in their first at bat which included a three-run bomb by Sebastian Kuhns.

Camden Knepp started the slugfest for Taylor with his first of two dingers in the bottom of the side but Satchell Wilson got it right back in the top of the second when he launched one over the left center fence. TU was just getting heated up as they went yard twice in the home half of the second and then did so again in the third on the way to taking over the lead for good.

Ian McCutcheon also clocked one out of the park, his came in the fourth and proved Huntington’s third and final homerun of the game. He and Wilson each posted two hits and two RBI while Kuhns was even more dangerous at the plate where he went 3-for-4 and knocked in four runs.

Grant Simmons, the first of four Foresters to make an appearance on the mound, was charged with the loss. He spent the first 2.2 innings on the bump an gave up nine hits, nine runs and a walk while striking out three.

While the nightcap wasn’t the scoring frenzy that the opener was as it featured only one homerun, that dinger was the centerpiece of the contest. It came at the bat of Knepp, his third of the series, and brought in three runs. It made for a 3-0 Taylor lead after two. They extended it to four before the Foresters finally got on the board on an error in the fourth. Jaden Deel cut the lead in half in the seventh on an RBI-double but that’s as close as it would get.

Huntington managed just four hits to Taylor’s six. Tyler Papenbrock took the loss for HU having tossed the first 5.2 innings where he gave up six hits, four runs and four walks while striking out seven.

With both wins, top-seeded Taylor (23-9, 16-2) stretches their lead over HU to three games in the regular season standings. With these losses, Huntington drops to 19-10 overall, 13-5 in CL action. The two squads are back in action tomorrow at noon.