Cougars splits softball doubleheader at Sequoias, answers opener loss with 6-4 win in Game 2
Taft College salvaged a split in Tuesday's Central Valley Conference softball doubleheader at Sequoias, dropping the opener 12-4 before responding with a 6-4 win in the second game at Visalia. The decisive swing of the day for the Cougars came in Game 2, when Keona Comilang lined a two-run double to right in a three-run fifth inning that turned a one-run game into a Taft lead.
Game 1 belonged largely to Sequoias after a five-run second inning created early separation. Gabrielle Vasquez delivered the biggest blow of that frame, a bases-loaded double to center that drove in three runs and helped the Giants move in front 5-0. Taft answered with a three-run third to cut the deficit to 6-3, showing some of the offensive life that carried into the nightcap. Cadence Mizener scored twice and finished with two hits, while Jada Mizener added two hits and a run. Taft totaled 12 hits in the opener, but Sequoias played error-free defense and broke the game open with six runs in the sixth. The Cougars also added a run in the fifth, but three errors and the two big innings proved too much to overcome in the six-inning loss.
The second game turned on Taft's middle innings execution and steadier work in the circle. Sequoias scored first and led 1-0 after the second, but the Cougars drew even with a run in the third before taking control in the fifth. Comilang's two-RBI double highlighted that surge, pushing Taft ahead 4-1. Jasmine Estrada continued the pressure at the plate and finished 3 for 4 with two RBIs, while Katelynn Moore added two hits, scored twice and doubled. Comilang finished with two hits, two RBIs and two doubles in one of Taft's sharpest offensive performances of the afternoon.
Sequoias made one more push in the sixth when Vasquez tripled to right-center and the home team scored twice to trim the margin to 4-3. Taft answered in the seventh with two more insurance runs, again sparked by Comilang and capped by an RBI single from Estrada. That cushion mattered in the bottom half, when Sequoias scratched across one final run but got no closer.
Jada Mizener finished off the nightcap with a complete-game effort for Taft, working all seven innings and allowing four runs on seven hits. The Cougars backed her with clean defense, committing no errors after making three in the opener. That contrast was one of the clearest differences between the two games. After Sequoias capitalized on early chances and late miscues to win the first contest, Taft tightened up defensively, got timely extra-base hitting and closed the day by leaving Visalia with a split.