Taft College loses at Merced, but Selected for NorCal Playoffs

REGIONAL BRACKET

By Brendan Hamilton

Saturday, April 27, was a sigh of relief for the Taft College Baseball Cougars (20-17) as they faced off against the Merced College Blue Devils (16-7) in their final regular season game of the year.

With Fresno City College beating Reedley College on Friday, the Cougars were guaranteed a spot in the playoffs. The game did not go quite as planned, however. Merced came out hot, scoring 4 runs in the bottom of the second, but some strong pitching from Eric Godinez gave the Cougars a chance to rally back. Taft scored 3 runs in the third, 1 in the fifth, and one in the sixth to catapult out to a 5-4 lead. Jackson Berry led the offense in that span with a solo homerun and an RBI triple. Merced rallied late, putting up 3 runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to score 3 runs and regain their lead, a lead that would stand for the rest of the game. The final score would be 7-5 for Merced.

Taft College Head Baseball Coach Vince Maiocco commented, "Our guys have dealt with a lot of adversity this year and they have all weathered the storm. The players and coaching staff are really excited to be playing postseason baseball. We like where our team is at this moment in time, and we look forward to the challenge that awaits us in playing Delta College. This series will be a good measuring stick to see where our baseball program stacks up against one of the premier California Juco programs in Delata College."

For the Northern California 3C2A State Playoff Regionals, the #20 seeded Cougars play this Friday, May 3, vs #5 seeded San Joaquin Delta College in Lathrop, CA at Islanders Field at 3:00 pm. Game #2 will be on Saturday at 12:00 pm and if needed, Game #3 will start 45 minutes after Game #2 concludes.