Taft Baseball drops conference game to Porterville
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 0 |
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1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | X | 8 | 11 | 0 |
TAFT, CA – On Thursday, April 25, the Taft College Cougars (20-17) played the Porterville College Pirates (16-21) with another chance to clinch a playoff spot.
Porterville came out hot scoring in the bottom of the first inning and the Cougars responded in the top third with Odnal Rivera's 2-out RBI drag bunt that tied it up at 1-1. Porterville answered with a 5 run bottom half of the third to take the lead 6-1.
Pitcher Jacob Canuel pitched well despite his stat line putting up several shutout innings, giving the cougar offense a chance. After Jackson Berry's RBI double in the seventh, Porterville put the game out of reach, scoring 2 in the bottom of the seventh.
Taft mounted a small comeback in the eighth, scoring 2 on a Manny Esparza single, but it wasn't enough to overcome the 6-run lead. The game ended 8-4 for Porterville.
The Cougars have a final chance to clinch a playoff spot with a win on Saturday, April 27, on the road against Merced College.