By Brendan Hamilton
TAFT, CA – Sun filled the sky for a beautiful day of baseball between the Taft College Cougars and the Bakersfield College Renegades. Taft College sophomore RHP Kaleb Hay took the mound and went 7 innings of 1-run baseball and surrendering only 2 hits. He struck out 8 Renegade hitters while not allowing any walks. His performance was nothing short of dominating and the Cougars bats rallied behind him. Although the Cougars got off to a slow start, scoring only one run in the first 3 innings, the floodgates opened after a 5-run fourth inning in large part due to defensive woes by the Renegades infield. Bakersfield responded with a solo homerun in the top of the fifth inning, but Taft continued the scoring putting up 7 runs in the bottom of the fifth. Runs came from a Jesus Gonzalez RBI single, a Yadriel Reyes RBI single and a Jackson Berry 2-RBI single.
The biggest blast of the game came from a Manny Esparaza home run to deep left field. It was Esparza's first college homerun. Scoring remained at a halt for the next innings for both teams as Jacob Canuel and Shimboku Matsudo each came in for an inning each and shut the door.
The final score was 13-1 and it marked the Cougars' third straight win against their Kern County rivals.
Baseball will return to action on the road against Gavilan College in Gilroy on Friday, February 16 at 2:00 pm and Saturday at 10:00 am.
Taft has a 2-4 record in the opening season.