Coalinga, CA - The West Hills College baseball team (19-16) dropped its series opener on Wednesday afternoon vs. Taft College by the score of 10-2. Defensive errors from the Falcons and a seven run ninth inning from the Cougars sealed the Taft victory. The West Hills offense was held to only five hits in the ballgame and couldn't get to Cougar starting pitcher Will Moore.
Southpaw
Spencer Hammond (5-4) had another impressive outing on the mound for West Hills. In eight innings of work Hammond struck out seven Cougars batters and allowed no earned runs. Getting ahead in the count and forcing weak contact kept the game within reach for West Hills.
Taft was able to jump out to an early in the game. The Cougars crossed a run in the top of the first inning on a two out fielding mistake from the Falcons. In the third inning
Matt Siedem got the first hit of the day for WHCC with a single to left field.
A one out throwing error from Hammond brought in another Taft run in the fifth inning. With runners on first and third a safety squeeze bunt brought in the second run of the inning. After five innings of play the score was 3-0 in favor of the Cougars.
It wasn't until the seventh inning that the Falcons could get things rolling.
Alante Uribe started things off by earning a one out walk. A
Brandon Barker single to right field put runners at the corners for Coach McGovern's squad.
Danny Perez then entered the game for Barker at first base. A stolen base from Perez followed by a
Jeff Torres single to left field drove in the first run of the day for West Hills. A safety squeeze bunt form
Jake Lorenzini scored Perez and made it a one run ballgame.
As the game headed to the ninth inning momentum seemed to be switching in favor of the home team, as closer
Fernando Ramirez came in relief of Hammond. A walk and back-to-back singles loaded the bases loaded the bases for Taft. A squeeze attempt back to Ramirez on the mound was underhand tossed to home plate for the second out of the inning. With two outs the Cougars put the game out of reach for West Hills, as they scored seven runs on only two hits to make the score final at:
West Hills 2 – Taft 10
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Series Recap:
Game 1: West Hills 2 – Taft 10 - Keith Skrivner Field
Game 2: Thursday, April 20th @ Taft – 2:00 p.m. start
Game 3: Saturday, April 22nd – Keith Skrivner Field – 1:00 p.m. start