Behind the strong pitching effort of senior Paige Smith, the Los Banos Tiger softball team walked off with a 2-1 come-from-behind victory over the Kimball Jaguars in the first round of the Sac-Joaquin section playoff May 17.
On their home field the Tigers spotted Kimball a first inning 1-0 lead, despite the Jaguars never recording a hit getting a ball out of the infield. A hit batter, a stolen base and an infield error produced the only run Kimball would score the entire game.
Los Banos would finally tie the score in the fifth inning. Hallie Moore doubled home Isabella Orozco to even the score at 1-1.
Smith then shut down the Jaguars over the final two innings, allowing her Tiger teammates to pull out a victory in the last of the seventh inning.
Moxie Barton opened the inning with a walk and with two outs it was once again Moore with the big hit. She drove a ball deep into left field off the glove of the Jaguar outfielder. Barton slid home with the winning run and a 2-1 Tiger victory.
Smith threw a complete game, a five-hit masterpiece, allowing just the one unearned run. Katie Aragona led the Tiger offense with two hits, while Matalie Greenwood, Moore, Silva, Smith and Orozco each collected a hit apiece.
The Tigers traveled to Vanden May 19 to face the number one seed in the second round of the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs.
