FEB. 23 — Hot Start, Pitching, Propels Goshen Past Tech
Taylor puts on impressive display while big first inning gives team 3-2 win

Fort Wayne, IN — As the Goshen College baseball team brought in run after run in the top of the first inning at Indiana Tech Thursday afternoon, senior Ben Taylor began to smile.

The 2005 Mid-Central Conference Player of the Year appreciated the early cushion.

Taylor (1-0) used a dominating performance on the mound while Goshen (3-2, 0-0) put a damper on the storied program’s season opener, defeating the Warriors by a 3-2 count in Fort Wayne. For first-year Leafs’ head coach Josh Keister, the win over the six-time NAIA World Series participants was a definite morale booster for his squad.

“It was nice to get a game in this early in the year up north,” Keister said. “Getting a win against a program with as much tradition as Indiana Tech is a huge confidence builder for us. Hopefully we can build on a game like this as we prepare to head south for our spring break trip.”

Goshen got things rolling early at the plate, and then Taylor took care of business from there. Junior Nate Colclasure got the scoring going for the Leafs in the first inning, as freshman Kyle Koch drove in a pair of runs before going 1-4 on the afternoon. Colclasure, who scored in the first, finished 3-4 at the plate. Sophomore Mike Staehle was also a factor, reaching base three times on a pair of doubles and a walk.

After the dust settled from the Leafs’ first-inning scoring fest, Taylor made sure the plate would stay relatively un-trafficked for the remainder of the contest: The right-hander allowed just four Tech hits on the afternoon, striking out 10 while walking none. Just one of the Warriors’ two runs were earned — Goshen committed just one error — while Taylor finished eight full innings of work before being pulled for junior Brian Shelton. Shelton (1) picked up the save in the ninth inning, striking out two and giving up no hits in a pressure situation.

“Ben Taylor gave an outstanding performance as we have come to expect from him,” Keister said. “He didn’t give up a hit until the fifth inning. We were not planning on Ben going so deep into the game but he was so efficient with his pitches that he kept his pitch count really low.”

Goshen will next travel south for a five-day Alabama-Florida swing, as the team will face four different teams in the nation’s southeast this week. That trip will open against Auburn University-Montgomery on Monday, when the Leafs will face the Senators in a double-header slated to begin at 3 p.m.