Historic baseball DH against Central College for Evan and Drew Taylor

Special to the Times Vedette

It turned out to be an historic night for the Taylor twins (Evan and Drew) during the Buena Vista baseball doubleheader at home on April 8 against Central College as both players reached or set career milestones on the night.

Evan led off game one in record-breaking fashion as he laced a double to the gap in right center that broke the program’s career record for doubles at 51. The previous record of 50 was held by Mike Hoffman, who played for BVU from 2008-11. Taylor would then come around to score a few pitches later on a 2-run home run to give the Beavers an early 2-0 lead. He finished the game at 2-for-4 with a hit-by-pitch.

Later in that same game, Drew became the eighth player in program history to reach 200 career hits when he led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a single. It was Evan who had reached that same milestone in the previous home series against Nebraska Wesleyan on March 27.

Evan tacked on one more double on the night against the Dutch to extend his current record to 52. Drew, meanwhile, is on Evan’s heels with 48 career doubles, including a big lead-off two-bagger in the bottom of the 12th inning that led to the game-winning run in game two against the Dutch.

Central went on to rally and win game one of the DH, 9-6, and had rallied late in game two with seven runs in the seventh that led to extra innings before BVU managed to escape with the 10-9 walk-off victory in the nightcap.

Drew currently holds a slight edge over Evan with a .345 batting average this season, which ranks second on the team. Evan is right behind in third at .333. The dynamic twin duo, who are graduates of Panorama High School, has combined for 412 career base hits and counting for BVU, including 100 doubles, 21 triples and 256 RBI.

Buena Vista is now 19-6 overall (11-2 A-R-C) and sits percentage points ahead of Coe College for the American Rivers Conference lead at the midway point of the conference schedule.