It was a slow start to the area round game last Thursday, May 12, in Taylor.
The Ducks had to come from down 1-0 late in the game to defeat highly ranked China Spring 2-1 in the second round of the playoffs. The win was also Taylor’s 20th on the season.
In the game, Taylor sophomore pitcher Chris Perez set a new Taylor Duck baseball single season record for strikeouts with 140. Perez shut down eight Cougar batters to set the standard.
The Cougars grabbed the 1-0 lead in the top of the second frame and held the Ducks to just one hit heading into the bottom of the third inning.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, the Ducks threatened but came up empty handed. Perez, Cohen Tyree and Dominick Hartman all singled to load the bases with nobody out. The Cougars pitching then stiffened. Matthew Aplin went down on strikes. Aiden Aguero went down on strikes, and Tyree was picked off at second to close out the inning.
In the fifth, the Ducks rallied to take the lead. After two quicks outs, Jake Jansky walked. Nick Treuter reached on an error by the Cougar third baseman. Jansky rushed across home plate to even the game at 1-1. Perez then doubled to send pinch runner Devin Valdez home to give Taylor the 2-1 lead.
For the remainder of the game, Perez only surrendered two hits to the Cougars as the Ducks took game one.
Chris Perez finished 2-for-3 at the plate with a single, a double and the go-ahead RBI. He also pitched a complete game and gave up six hits and one run.
The Ducks traveled to China Spring on Friday, May 13, for games two and, if necessary, game three. First pitch for Friday was set for 5 p.m.
