Taft College grabbed the lead in the first inning Saturday afternoon, but Fresno City College broke the game open with a seven-run eighth and handed the Cougars a 13-4 loss at Cougar Field.
The decisive moment came in the top of the eighth, when Fresno City turned a two-run game into a rout. Gilbert Acosta lined a two-run double and Isac Mandujano followed with a three-run homer as Fresno City stretched a 6-4 lead to 13-4. That outburst capped a day in which Fresno City scored in the first, third, fourth, sixth and eighth innings, finishing with 13 runs on 12 hits.
Taft opened with one of its best swings of the day in the bottom of the first. Noah Duran doubled, and after an error by the shortstop, the Cougars pushed across three runs. Two runs scored on Duran’s extra-base hit, and Taft added another on a groundout RBI to take a 3-1 advantage. Fresno City answered in the third with three runs to move in front 4-3, then got a solo home run from Tyler O’Toole in the fourth for a 5-3 lead…