No. 1 TU Pulls Away From No. 18 MACU After Weather Delay

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LEWISTON, Idaho – No. 1 and top-seeded Taylor (55-6) won its third straight elimination game at the 2026 Avista NAIA World Series with a convincing 13-4 triumph over No. 18 and seventh-seeded Mid-America Christian. The contest was suspended on Tuesday due to weather with the score tied 4-4 in the fifth inning, and following a 16-hour, 22-minute delay, the Trojans outscored the Evangels 9-0 after the contest was restarted on Wednesday morning.

With the victory, TU advances to Thursday night's game at 6:30 p.m. PDT/9:30 p.m. EDT, where it will meet the winner of Wednesday night's matchup between William Carey and Southeastern.

The Trojans racked up 17 hits but none bigger than Quinn Kunkel's pinch-hit, two-out single to plate the go-ahead runs in the seventh off MACU's ace Ibrahim Gonzalez. The freshman Kunkel won the lefty-on-lefty battle, depositing a full-count fastball to left field as Brennan Frickel and Sam Gladd scored to put the Trojans in front 6-4. It was Kunkel's fourth straight appearance in the World Series with a pinch-hit knock.

Behind another stellar outing on the mound by Lane Lewis, who took over after the restart for his second appearance in the World Series, the momentum shift was palpable following an inning-ending double play to thwart a MACU rally in the bottom of the seventh.

Working on three days of rest, Lewis delivered five shutout frames to help preserve the Trojan pitching staff. The sophomore right-hander struck out a pair, scattered four hits and needed just six pitches to retire the side in order in the ninth, improving to 5-0.

From there, the Trojans piled on six runs on five hits in the eighth inning to take full control of the contest. Luke Sutter drew a lead-off walk before coming around to score on Frickel's RBI single through the right side to make it 7-4.

Three more runs crossed on contact from Fletcher Roemmich, Nate Simpson and Peter Ensign before Sutter came up again after the Trojans batted around and the junior outfielder drove in two more to put TU ahead 12-4.

Frickel also homered in the ninth inning – his career-best 10th blast to cap a three-hit day for his best offensive showing of the World Series.

Frickel (3-for-4, HR, 3 RBIs) and Gladd (3-for-5, 2B) led six Trojans with multi-hit efforts in the game. Sutter (2-for-4, 2 RBIs), Simpson (2-for-6, 2 RBIs), Brayden Manning (2-for-6) and Jordan Malott (2-for-6, HR, 2 RBIs) each delivered two hits.

Malott homered in the third inning on Tuesday, with a moonshot no-doubter to dead center for his team-leading 19th long ball. The senior first baseman also roped an RBI double to the right-field corner for his 18th two-bagger in the first inning.

Manning (2-for-6) collected a pair of hits to run his season total to 100, while extending his hitting streak to 20 games and on-base streak to 39 games. With his first inning single, the senior outfielder broke the TU baseball program's single-season hits record.

After the Trojans jumped out to an early 2-0 following Malott's double and Frickel's sacrifice fly, MACU tied it up with two runs on three hits in the second inning. Then, the two teams exchanged the lead in the third inning with home runs on each side. Malott's solo blast put the Trojans ahead 3-2 in the top half, before MACU's Adam Hanan connected on a two-run homer to put the Evangels in front 4-3.

With rain beginning to fall, the Trojans loaded the bases but came up empty in the fourth inning but were able to notch the tying run in the fifth on Simpson's two-out infield single.

Wes Hunt made his second start of the World Series, logging a pair of innings with two strikeouts and two runs surrendered on three hits. Gage Gongwer appeared in his third World Series contest and registered two innings of work.

After dropping the opening matchup, No. 1 TU improved to 3-1 in Lewiston – marking the program's highest win total at the World Series event after going 2-2 in 2023.