by Kaivon Kealoha
February 4, 2017
Taft College hosted a double header on Saturday against the Seahawks of LA Harbor. Game one took 12 innings to determine a conclusion when Travis Turner drove in Quintin Nakamura with bases loaded, no out single to secure a walk off win of the hard fought game.
Both teams had plenty of hits, (Taft- 20, LA Harbor- 14) and plenty opportunity to score. Taft left 9 runners on base. LA Harbor stranded 13.
LA Harbor struck first off the Taft starting right-hander, Tyson Canfield. Mike Gonzalez doubled to score Anthony Garcia and Matt Williams. However, Taft was quick to answer back in the same inning when Kaivon Kealoha doubled for an RBI then scored on a single by Turner to tie the game at 2.
Luke Lubiniecki scored on a double play ground ball from Richard Ortiz in the third to give Taft the 3-2 lead.
LA Harbor answered back scoring one in the fourth on another RBI hit by Gonzalez; then struck for 2 more in the 6th with a base hit by Mike Pagan and sacrifice bunt for another RBI by Gonzalez.
The Cougars had two outs in the sixth before Dayton Wilson singled then stole second base to put himself in scoring position for Nash Franko at the plate. Franko smacked a double to drive in
Wilson then scored on a single by Lubiniecki to tie the game at five.
Nick Kawano went 4-for-6 with a double and three singles. Wilson collected four hits in five at-bats. Nakamura and Kealoha each went 3-for-6 on the game.
Canfield pitched 5 innings; giving up 3 earned runs on 5 hits and 5 strikeouts. Seth Sorensen threw 3.2 innings allowing no runs while striking out 2. Bryan Santiago pitched the 10th inning allowing no runs on 2 hits and Chase Nistor got the win tossing the 11th and 12th innings surrendering no runs on just 1 hit.