The Taylor baseball team won their bi-district playoff contest against the Smithville Tigers with ease this past Friday, May 6, by a score of 11-3.
Chris Perez pitched had a complete game giving up one hit and three runs and struck out 12, for a season total of 132 strikeouts.
After the first three Tigers batters went down via strikeouts, the Ducks offense went to work. Nick Treuter led off with a walk on four pitches. Perez then doubled to send Treuter home and make it 1-0 Taylor. Failing to tag up, Perez was put out after Cohen Tyree popped out to right field. Dominick Hartman and Matthew Aplin both singled to reach base. A third consecutive single, this one by Aiden Aguero, scored Hartman to make it a 2-0 Ducks lead. Jonah Adame singled home Aplin and advanced Aguero to third base. Adame swiped second base during Ashton Vega’s at bat which led to a walk to load the bases for the Ducks. Aguero scored on a passed ball to put the Ducks up 4-0 for the final score of the inning.
Smithville closed the gap in the top of the second inning with a pair of scores to make it a 4-2 game.
The Ducks reclaimed the four-run advantage in the bottom of the third inning with two runs. Aguero led with a walk, and Adame followed to first also drawing a base on balls. Vega then singled to load the bases for Taylor. Jake Jansky doubled to left field to send Aguero and Adame home for a 6-2 Taylor lead.
The Ducks added another run in the bottom of the fifth inning. Jansky and Treuter both reached base via singles to put two runners on base. After out number two, Tyree doubled to send Jansky home to give the Ducks a 7-2 lead.
The Taylor sixth inning started with a walk and then a bang. Aplin reached base via walk on five pitches. Aguero then put the Ducks up 9-2 with a two-run home run over the left-field wall. Adame followed with a double. Braylan Alderete reached base on a dropped third strike by the catcher that advanced Adame to third base. Jansky came in to run for Alderete. Treuter then walked to load the bases. Devin Valdez came in to run for Treuter. Perez then walked to force home Adame to give the Ducks their 10th run of the game. Jansky scored the final Taylor run when Tyree grounded into a fielder’s choice.
The Tigers scrounged one run across in the seventh as the game concluded.
With the win, the Ducks claimed their 19th victory of the season and advance to the area round of the playoffs to face China Spring in a three-game series with game one at Taylor on Thursday, May 12, and game two at China Spring on Friday, May 13, followed by game three if necessary.
