Kenny Montgomery strikes out seven batters in the win for the Bears 

The John Burroughs Bears didn’t have it easy with the Taft Toreadors, but still found a way to hold on to a 9-4 win behind Kenny Montgomery’s seven strikeout performance in 4.1 innings pitched. Taft came off a 13-2 loss to Carson over the weekend, with Burroughs completing a two-game series split against the Pasadena Bulldogs as Pasadena took game one by the final 5-1 over Burroughs on Tuesday, April 1st and then Burroughs returned the favor with a 6-2 win in game two on Friday April 4th. 

Montgomery began the night by working around a hit batsman by striking out Noah Weinstein looking in the top of the first inning. Montgomery struck out two batters and recorded a ground out, and then Ryan Gamez retired the side in order, which resulted in a scoreless first inning. 

Burroughs put together two four-run innings in both the bottom of the second and third innings, and it looked as though the Bears were well on their way to a mercy rule win over the Toreadors. Both teams were then held scoreless in the fourth inning and then Taft found a way to close the gap with a four-run inning of their own in the top of the fifth inning. Dylan Gustafson, Reese, Dunner, and Nate Swinson all drove in runs to help kick-start Taft’s offense, and Sebastian Fernadnez scored from third base on a wild pitch by Mason Fournier. 

In the bottom of the sixth inning. Zack Guevara drove home Devin Whittikend on an RBI fielder’s choice to seal the game for the Bears. Nathan Bartolo worked around a one-out walk to Noah Weinstein by getting Oliver Berger on a pop out to the second baseman Zach Byars to end the game. 

“I thought our pitching besides the top of the fifth was really good,” said Matt Magallon. Magallon added on and said that Kenny Mongtomery had a great comeback performance and mentioned that Nathan Bartolo pitched well in relief and Mason Fournier just didn’t have his stuff. 

Burroughs improves to 15-3 and Taft drops to 4-14. Burroughs will play a second home back-to-back against Monroe on Tuesday, April 8th at 6:00 p.m. Taft will resume West Valley League play with a two-game series with Birmingham beginning on Wednesday, April 9th at 3:00 p.m.