By Brendan Hamilton
TAFT, CA – The week began once again, with rain changing the Cougars' schedule, moving the conference opener from Tuesday to Wednesday. Despite this change, the Taft College Cougars Baseball Team remained unphased and won the first game in dominating fashion 14-3. Everything began to click after the Porterville College starter plunked two guys, and walked one, loading the bases for Jesus Gonzalez in the bottom of the third. In typical Gonzalez fashion, he hit a ball into orbit giving the Cougars an early 4-0 lead. In the fourth, the Cougars added 4 more runs playing some small ball, as well as getting a 2 RBI single from Yadriel Reyes. The Cougars kept tacking on runs, and after a Hewnelson Vega homer in the 8th inning, the game was capped. Porterville put up some resistance in the eighth and ninth, homering twice to make the game 14-3, but the lead was too large for a comeback. Kaleb Hay went 7 scoreless innings of 1 hit baseball, striking out 8 of his opponents.
Game 2 of the series in Porterville on Thursday saw the Cougars struggle offensively. The scoring opened with an Alex Camorlinga single in the third inning, and Porterville answered back with a run of their own in the bottom of the inning. In the fifth, Alex Camorlinga once again hit an RBI single, and Elijah Olaybal followed with a ball hammered to the wall for another run. Porterville clawed back and evened the game at 3 in the bottom of the sixth. The game remained scoreless for the rest of regulation play as Ian Gross silenced the Porterville lineup. However, in the bottom of the tenth inning, Porterville loaded the bases and Taft College Coach Vince Maiocco rolled the dice, putting 5 infielders out to cut down a run. A ball was hammered to the shortstop, and it got away, allowing Porterville to score the winning run.
On a bright and sunny day hosted the final game of an action-packed series. Porterville came out to play, scoring two quick runs in the top of the first inning. Taft responded with 2 runs of their own in the bottom of the first to even the game at 2 after an Elijah Olaybal triple. Jackson Berry singled in the bottom of the second inning to give the Cougars an early 3-2 lead. The lead did not last long as Pirates scored two in the top of the third, and one more in the top of the fourth to take a 5-3 lead. The Cougars stormed back, scoring 3 in the bottom of the fourth to take a 6-5 lead. After a few innings of play, Porterville scored one run tying the game at 6; however, a Jackson Berry placed a safety squeeze RBI bunt to push the Cougars ahead 7-6. Shimboku Matsudo would finish the Pirates off as he went an outstanding, 6 innings of 2 run baseball in relief, closing the game at 7-6.
After the Porterville week, Taft is 6-6 overall, and 2-1 in Conference play. The Cougars' next game is on Tuesday, February 27 in Lancaster, CA against Antelope Valley College.