Falcons rally in ninth inning to beat COS, 5-3

Haruki Nakano (Photo by Gina Twardowski)
Haruki Nakano (Photo by Gina Twardowski)

VISALIA – Emiliano Murillo tossed a complete game and Haruki Nakano drove in 3 runs to help lead West Hills College Coalinga to a 5-3 Central Valley Conference win at College of the Sequoias on Thursday. The victory snapped the Falcons' 10-game losing streak and improved West Hills to 2-16 overall and 1-7 in the CVC.

Murrillo (1-3) picked up his first win of the season for West Hills on Thursday. He scattered 12 hits and allowed 3 runs over 9 innings.

On offense, the Falcons rallied late for the win. Trailing 3-2 after the eighth inning, the West Hills scored three times in the top of the ninth to complete the comeback.

Nakano came up with the clutch hit, delivering a two-out, two-run double to put the Falcons out in front. He smacked an RBI-double in the top of the sixth to drive West Hills' first run of the contest.

Chris Amaya (2 for 5), Caleb Cazares (2 for 4), and Champ Tenorio (2 for 3) all had 2 hits each for the Falcons.

Sequoias fell to 9-10 overall and 3-4 in the Central Valley Conference.

The two squads will play the finale of a three-game conference series on Saturday (Mar. 9) in Coalinga at 1 p.m. The series is now evened up at 1-1 after COS took the opener by a final score of 6-5 on Tuesday.