Wild Pitch Walk Off Win
Story by: Mark O’Connor
Photos by: Denae Ayala
On the last day of February the Cougars baseball team defeated the Antelope Valley Marauders in an unusual walk off.
Tyson Canfield threw one of his best games of the short season surrendering three earned runs, six hits, and striking out five in six innings of work. He did an outstanding job of keeping hitters off balance and getting ahead in the count.
Seth Sorenson came in relief throwing a scoreless four innings and striking out two batters. Sorenson earned his second win on the season.
The Cougars struck first, scoring 2 runs in the bottom of the third inning. Nick Kawano singled home Dayton Wilson and Dominic Tating laid down a sacrifice bunt to score Jayce Gardner. The Marauders answered back in the top half of the fourth inning with two runs of their own to tie the score 2-2.
After an RBI single by freshman Brandon Stevens in the bottom of the fourth drove in Brendan Halstrom and a home run by the Antelope Valley’s Zach Diaz in the top of the sixth inning the score was tied 3-3. The scored remain locked until the bottom of the tenth inning when the Cougars cooked up a rally.
The inning started off with a pinch hit walk by Luke Lubinieki. Lubiniek was out at second as Nick Kawano reached base on a fielder’s choice. Kawano then advanced to second base on a wild pitch by Marauders pitcher Andrew Garcia. Following the wild pitch Kawano was moved to third base with a ground ball from Dominic Tating. With two outs and a 2-1 pitch Garcia threw another wild pitch that lead to the game winning run for the Cougars.