Antelope Valley College defeated College of the Canyons with a final score of 11-7 in a tight contest that puts the Cougars a game behind in the teams’ best-of-three conference series
After bouncing back to even following a 2-7 start, Canyons (10-12, 4-3) have now fallen below .500 on the year..
Canyons’ loss in their first meeting with AVC is the Cougars’ second straight loss.
The Cougars got out to a fast start with Tafton Hensley hitting a home run in the bottom of the first. It was a 3 RBI that put the Cougars up 4-0 in the first inning.
“Always early in the game, I’m always looking for a fastball. They’re always trying to get ahead,” said Hensley. “So usually I don’t get a fastball, but when I do I’m trying to do damage on it.”
Doyle Kane (16) swings and hits the ball pitched at him at COC, Tuesday 032222 (Kyle Kawamoto/Canyons News)
Building on the momentum generated by Hensely, Albert Prado had a strong start to the game keeping AVC at bay. He pitched 5 innings and only gave up 4 hits and one RBI. Then after getting subbed out things started to fall apart for COC.
In the top of the 6th Prado got subbed out for Malakai Correll who quickly struggled giving up three hits and 3 runs. After this, the Cougars wasted no time by subbing in Josh Yosfan in for Correll, but he wasn’t put in the greatest situation.
“Coming into the fifth, bases loaded, and no outs. I was a little nervous and I just tried to do my job and throw strikes,” said Josh Yosfan.
After scoring a couple of runs in the seventh and eighth innings the Cougars were up 7-6 going into the ninth. Yosfan was still going strong after pitching some perfect innings but in the top of the ninth gave up an RBI which tied the game at 7-7.
COC baseball watching the game at COC, Tuesday 032222 (Kyle Kawamoto, Canyons News)
After the Cougars failed to score in the bottom of the ninth the game went into extra innings. COC fell apart in these extra innings. Xavier Stoker gave up 4 walks and a wild pitch. Stoker gave up 2 runs while the pitcher to replace him Ricky Galavriz-Canto also gave up 2 runs.
After not being able to score in the bottom of the 10th the Cougars lost the game 11-7. Coach Chris Cota was unhappy, to say the least after the loss.
“We made so many mistakes today that it was hard to pinpoint it to one thing,” said Cota. “I hope this is a wake-up call for them. I think they’ll be ready to play Thursday if not the same thing will happen.”
The Cougars next game is Thursday, March 24th against AVC. COC hopes to win to stay above .500 in the conference and to hopefully win the best-of-three conference series.
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