by Dennis McCall
Taft Midway Driller

PORTERVILLE – Taft College got off to a quick lead that paced the Cougars to a wild 15-11 Central Valley Conference softball victory here Tuesday.

There was plenty of everything: runs (26), hits (26), errors (9) and walks (16).

Runs and hits were pretty even with the Cougars leading the hit parade by smacking 16 base hits, 15 of them singles, to the Pirates 10. Both teams left runs on the base paths – Porterville 11 and Taft 10.

But errors were uneven with the home team committing six compared to Taft's three.

The Cougars had a big lead in free passes. Pitcher Cheyeene Gutierrez dished out 13 of them and that kept the Pirates in the game.

Every Cougar hitter in the lineup had at least one hit.

Freshman designated player Halle Neher, a Taft High product, went 3-for-5 with a double and run batted in.

Keana Ratcliff-Hogan and Alexandra Benevidez both drove in three runs each.

Tiana Cantero-Kawela, Bailey San Agustin-Nortdmeier, Kelsey Wilmer, Benvidez and Sonja Lawrence all smacked two hits each.

The Cougars had a good day on the base paths with Neher stealing two bases and Kawela, Nordmeier and Benevidez one each.

Pitcher Cheyeene Gutierrez pitched a complete game, giving up nine earned runs on 10 hits with 13 walks.

TC jumped out to a 5-0 lead before the Pirates tied it after three innings.

The Cougars then scored four times in the fourth and sixth sandwiched around one run in the fifth to take a 14-5 lead.

TC (3-9 CVC, 3-16 overall) is in Reedley today (Thursday) for a conference doubleheader with the second place Tigers (10-2, 20-14).