TAFT, CA – Taft College Cougars Baseball played Merced College for game two of their three game series on March 15.
Julian Orozco started on the mound for Taft and got to work early, throwing up 2 0's. Merced would strike first in the third inning, hitting a sacrifice fly to right field, taking the 1-0 lead. Taft responded in the bottom half of the inning as Gaku Yamamoto ripped an RBI triple to bring home Yadriel Reyes, tying the game 1-1.
The game remained deadlocked until the eighth, when Merced got some offense running generating 2 runs making it 3-1. Going into the eighth, Sho Saegusa comes out to throw up a 0 giving the offence a chance to walk it off. With 2 outs in the ninth, Taft mounted a dramatic comeback. Roman Roberts led off with a solo home run to cut the deficit to 3-2. Later in the inning, Eian Peralta was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, forcing in the tying run. Moments later, Yadriel Reyes singled to bring home Ty Moore for the walk-off win, sealing an improbable 4-3 victory for Taft.
When asked what his approach at the plate Reyes simply responded, "Hit ball hard," and with that he sealed the victory for the Cougars.
Julian Orozco would go 7 innings with only 1 run allowed being a key point for the Cougars big win.
In game three the following day, the game remained scoreless as Sebastion Montoya started for the Cougars. In the fourth inning, Aidan Otano launched a two-run homer to score Yadriel Reyes, making it 2-0. Merced answered in the bottom half when Merced put a ball into play, bringing the score to 2-1. In the fifth, Taft extended their lead to 3-1 on an RBI single by Roman Roberts, scoring Odnal Rivera. However, Merced responded in the sixth when putting on a big offensive run making it 3-3. Taft regained the lead in the seventh as Roberts delivered again, this time with a two-run double to drive in Jerameel Brisueno and Ty Moore for a 5-3 advantage. Caleb Garven came out to relieve Sebastian with a runner on first in the 7th Caleb threw up a 0 creating a big momentum shift for the Cougars. An RBI groundout by Ty Moore in the eighth and a run-scoring single from Reyes in the ninth extended Taft's lead to 7-3.
Despite the big lead Merced refused to go down without a fight, slowly climbing out of the grave putting up a 5 spot in the bottom of the ninth to walk it off 8-7 leaving the Cougars in shock. Roberts, Karson Spradling and Reyes all had multiple hit games. Roberts went 4 for 5 on the day with 3 RBI's.