CITY SECTION BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : 7-Run Inning Lifts Taft Over University, 9-4

The Taft High baseball team, a wild-card entry in the City Section 4-A Division playoffs, continued to surprise opponents Wednesday, rallying for seven runs in the fifth inning to upset fifth-seeded University, 9-4, at University.

Taft (13-14-1), which upset top-seeded Poly in 12 innings Friday, trailed University, 4-0, before putting together its biggest inning of the season. Warren Peck opened the scoring for Taft with a run-scoring double and the Toreadors added an unearned run.

Taft went ahead to stay on back-to-back home runs by Carey Wilbur (a two-run shot) and Sean Collins.

In another quarterfinal game:

Chatsworth 11, Palisades 0--Senior left-hander Danny Rodriguez did not allow a Palisades runner past second base, gave up three hits, walked one and struck out eight at Chatsworth.

Mitch Root was four for four with two triples and three runs batted in for Chatsworth (22-5-1). Soly Maya was two for three with two RBIs, and Reed McMackin hit his first home run of the season, a two-run shot in the third.