May 2, 2016
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Baseball Spring 2016
By Nick Kawano
On April 29th, 2016, the Taft College Cougars baseball season came to an end. It is easy to say that it was an up and down season for the Cougars.
Finishing the season with a 14-22 overall record and a (7-17) conference record, the Cougars came into the season with high hopes but immediately ran into trouble in the early going.
The Cougars lost 4 of there first 6 games. They were 6-14 when they were on the road and 8-8 when they played at home.
The first nine games of conference play the Cougars went 1-8, getting swept by Merced, Reedley, and losing 2 out of 3 from West Hills Coalinga.
On a positive note, the Cougars went 9-10 after starting conference 1-8. They played much better towards the end of the season, but it was too little too late to get into the postseason.
Luke Lubiniecki, a freshmen on the TC baseball team said, “It wasn’t the season we were hoping for, but it was good to see us play well towards the end of the season. I think that will give us some confidence and momentum going into next season.”
Even though the Cougars did not meet there expectations as a team, they still had some individuals accomplish some great thing this season.
Fabian Gutierrez led the team with a .351 batting average; Brendan Halstrom lead the team in rbi’s (31) and home runs (4).
For pitching, Robby Brewster led the way with 7 wins, 93 innings pitched, and 70 strikeouts. Caleb Newman had the best era on the team with a 2.84 earned run average.
“The freshmen who will be returning next year will come back bigger, faster, stronger, and better than ever.” Said Travis Turner.
It will be interesting to see how the Cougars respond next year.