LINCOLN CITY — With just over two weeks remaining in the regular season, Taft High School (21-0) is the last remaining unbeaten baseball team in Oregon after Crosshill Christian (18-1) lost to Regis last week in the second game of a doubleheader.
Taft passed its biggest late-season test last week by taking two from defending 3A champion Blanchet Catholic, 7-1 and 3-2 and then beat Yamhill-Carlton 10-0 in five innings Wednesday. Taft plays again Friday at Santiam Christian, which it beat 6-4 on April 21, and then hosts Santiam Christian on Monday in the second of two conference games.
What is the secret to the Tigers’ success? Simple. Pitching. Taft has yielded just 36 runs – less than two per game – all season. The Tigers have given up no more than five runs in any one game and have pitched five shutouts.
Well, they have Zack Hankins and his 0.00 ERA. Hankins is on pace to record a second consecutive regular season without an earned run. But Taft has two other main hurlers, sophomore Lonnie West and freshman Hayden Weiss, also with microscopic ERAs. West is at 0.86 over 24.1 innings of work, while Weiss has been sterling with a 0.27 ERA through 26 innings.
It’s hard to lose if you don’t give up any runs.
— John Tawa/OSAA Today
