Coach Steve Pearce's  Tiger squad has a healthy lead for second place over Merced, Sequoias, and Taft going into the final round of conference  play, which begins on Tuesday, April 16. On that day, the Tigers play at Fresno City at 3pm, 

Going into Monday action, Fresno leads the seven-team conference with a 16-1 record, followed by Reedley at 12-6 (20-14 overall), Merced at 10-8,:Sequoias at 8-9 and Taft at 8-10.

Reedley had a seven-game winning streak broken last Tuesday, April 10 with a 10-2 final score in Game 1 of the 3-game series at Taft. The Cougars handed Tiger ace Francisco Espejo his first loss in seven decisions this season on April 10. Espejo gave up just one earned run in 5.1 innings before the bullpen allowed seven runs.

In game 2 vs. Taft at home, the Tigers battled back and forth for the lead before scoring in the bottom of the ninth to record a come from behind 7-6 win. Reedley fell behind 2-0 innings before the the first inning before battling back. In the ninth inning, Caeden Chavez led off with a single before getting to third on two Taft errors. With bases loaded and Taft using five infielders and no one in right field, Anthony Mora lifted a wallk-off sacrifice fly ball to left, scoring Chavez and sealing the win in style.

The Tigers kept that momentum for the last leg of the 3-game series on the road at Taft and closed them out for a  3-0 win on Saturday. That afternoon in Taft, the TIgers used three pitchers--Nick Ohman (five innings), Cruz Cabral (three innings) and Jesus Cerda (one inning) combined to blank Taft on six hits taking the series 2 our of 3.  

The Tigers will play at home on Wednesday vs. Coalinga (3-15 conf. / 5-27 overall) at 2pm.  

Come on out and support the Tigers during spring break as they look to secure another trip to the playoffs.

GO TIGERS!

By Will Goldbeck