Taft College Baseball Lose in a Tight Match against Reedley

By Jesse Lubiniecki

TAFT, CA – The Taft College Cougars faced Reedley for game 2 of the series last Thursday, April 10.

Taft broke through the door early in the opening inning when Gaku Yamamoto scored on a single by Aidan Otano, who later came home on a sacrifice fly by Rhett Hodgins which gave Taft an early 2–0 lead. Reedley answered in the fourth, putting up a three spot to take the 3–2 lead. In the fifth, Taft responded quickly. Roman Roberts tied the game with an absolute missile hit over the left field fence, and Ty Moore added an RBI double to put Taft back in front, 4–3.

Reedley would come right back in the bottom half of the inning, tying the game once again on a fielder's choice. The back-and-forth continued in the sixth. Otano delivered his second RBI single of the game to give Taft a 5–4 lead, but Reedley rallied again. A triple hit in the right center gap scored 2 runs, putting Reedley ahead 6–5.

In the eighth, Taft tied things up once more when Odnal Rivera scored on an error during another Otano at-bat, making it 6–6. In the ninth Reedley scored one more run to walk it off to win it 7-6.

Game 3 was played in Taft on Saturday, April 12. Sebastian Montoya started on the bump for the Cougars and delivered right from the first pitch putting up 0 after 0. The sticks were cold for the Cougars not scoring any runs and getting shut out by Reedley. Montoya gave the Cougars a chance to go 8 innings and allowed only 1 earned run.

Caleb Garven carried the torch by throwing up a clean 0 in the ninth inning. Gaku Yamamoto went 2 for 3 on the day with 2 doubles, a walk, and stolen base being a machine offensively. Despite out-hitting Reedley 6-5 Taft in the end fell short, losing 3-0 in a disappointing defeat.

Taft College Cougars look to bounce back this week as they face Coalinga this Monday, April 14 in Taft.