The Taylor High School varsity baseball team halted a three-game 4A-District 22 losing streak Saturday, April 6 at home with a dominant 13-3 victory over La Grange High School. Ducks standout senior Chris Perez had a strong game on the mound and at the plate for Taylor. Perez, who finished a single short of the cycle, was 3-for-4 at the plate with a game-high five runs batted in and two runs scored. He also was in control on the mound in six innings pitched with 10 strikeouts, only one walk issued and all three of his runs allowed were unearned.
After La Grange took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning, Taylor responded on offense with a two-run double from Perez and a two-run single from senior Braylan Alderete to make it 4-1.
The visiting Leopards would attempt to rally with two runs in the fifth frame but the Ducks again had an answer. Taylor senior Ayden Gutierrez reached on an error and Perez came up next and smacked a two-home home run to left field to increase the Ducks’ lead to 6-3.
The Ducks completely opened the floodgates in the bottom of the sixth inning as seven runs came home to score and put the run rule into effect. Taylor did all of its damage with two outs as junior Mario Aguero reached on a fielder’s choice that scored fellow junior Xavier Juarez, Gutierrez hit an RBI single, Perez had a run-scoring triple, senior Dominick Hartman hit an RBI single, Alderete hit a two-run double and senior Aiden Aguero reached on an error that brought home the game’s final run.
Taylor (10-9-2 overall, 2-3 district record), under Head Coach Kale McQuillen, will have a district series this week with Giddings High School.
