Story by Brendan Hamilton
TAFT, CA – The week began in Compton, California at the Major League Baseball Youth Academy when the Taft College Baseball Cougars took on Compton College. Taft got out to a hot start scoring 2 runs in the first via an Owen Hayes 2 RBI single, and another run scored in the top of the second. With the Cougars up 3-0, Compton scored 3 in the bottom of the second to even the game at 3-3. Compton added another in the fourth to take the lead. However, Elijah Olaybal tied the game with a single of his own in the fourth and after Yadriel Reyes and Yuki Ochida doubled in the seventh to make the game 6-4, Taft gained control of the lead. Jackson Berry capped off the day with a solo homerun in the eighth inning. Compton provided some resistance scoring in the bottom of the eighth inning, but it was too little too late as the game ended 7-5. Kaleb Hay went 7 two thirds' innings of 5 run baseball.
Next up was Los Angeles Mission on Thursday and the Cougars took the momentum from Compton previously and scored two quick runs in the first inning. LA Mission responded with one of their own in the bottom of the first inning making it 2-1. After that point, the Cougar offense failed to collect any runs and LA Mission took full advantage of the stall scoring 1 in the third, 2 in the fifth, 1 in the sixth, and 3 in the seventh. With the game still in reach the Cougars remained at a halt. Scoring 1 run in the ninth, Taft could not complete the comeback and the game ended 7-3.
The offensive lull carried over to the next day for the Cougars, facing off against Cerritos College. Cerritos jumped out to an early lead scoring 3 in the bottom of the first, and from that moment onward, another run was not scored until the eighth inning. Adding 1 in the bottom of the eighth, Cerritos extended their lead to 4-0, and Taft scored one in the top of the ninth to make the final score 4-1 Cerritos. It was the day of the pitchers as Eric Godinez went 4 innings of scoreless baseball, Shimboku Matsudo went 2 scoreless innings.
The next series for the Cougars is against Fresno City College, starting on April 2. The next Cougar home game is on April 2.