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| Playoff race goes down to wire for Panthers |
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| For the baseball team, everything rides on the regular-season finale with Philomath. |
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By Sam Scott
INDEPENDENCE -- Central's hopes for a spot in the baseball playoffs received a boost May 9 when the Panthers rallied for a 12-3 victory against visiting Taft.
"We came out a little flat," CHS coach Marco Tavera said. "They were up 3-1 going into our at-bat in the fourth. We talked about not letting our season end today. The seniors actually did the talking. I sat there and listened. It's their team, their season.
"We stepped up and made a charge. We started hitting the baseball, and good things started happening for us."
One of the best of those good things was a towering three-run homer by John Pratt in the bottom of the fourth inning that turned the 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 lead.
"That kind of sparked us," Tavera said. "After that, we started putting the ball in play."
Central added three more runs in the fifth. The Panthers loaded the bases, and all three runners scored on either passed balls or wild pitches.
The Panthers added five more runs in the sixth. Aaron Waterman had three hits in four at-bats and drove in a pair of runs.
Central, which lost 14-1 May 6 at No. 4 Newport, entered the week tied with Philomath for second place in the Val-Co Conference. Both teams had 7-4 records and were slated to play May 13 at Philomath. The winner will advance to the playoffs with the league's No. 2 playoff seed, and the loser will be finished.
"Our confidence level is pretty high right now," Tavera said. "Our kids like playing down there. We won down there last year, and we won down there this year already. It's all about believing in yourself."
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