Taft Finally Up to Task, Brings Down Kennedy : High school baseball: Toreadors push across a run in the seventh inning to score 7-6 victory.

Taft High, the enigma of City Section baseball, finally showed some teeth. Finally showed some grit.

Finally played to its (pick one) cursed/blessed potential.

“It’s coming down to the end of the line,” pitcher Brandon Witkow said. “The intensity is up a notch. A lot of us realize that this is the end.”

Not quite: Taft rallied to shock third-seeded Kennedy, 7-6, in the quarterfinal round of the 4-A Division playoffs Thursday at Kennedy.

Taft (19-8) will face West Valley League rival Chatsworth in the semifinals Tuesday at a site to be determined. Chatsworth, which defeated Sylmar, 4-1, in another quarterfinal, has defeated Taft in three of four meetings this season.

Taft, whose roster includes four players who have signed to play at NCAA Division I schools, finished a disappointing third in league play. Pundits pointed fingers. Players questioned one another’s desire.

Against Kennedy, however, the Toreadors showed uncharacteristic mettle.

“Before the game today, for the first time all year, I knew we were gonna win the game,” pitcher Justin Siegel said.

It was uphill all the way. After taking a 1-0 lead in the first, Taft never led until first baseman Josh Irving walked with the bases loaded and two out in the top of the seventh for a 7-6 lead. Even then, it wasn’t easy hanging on, which seems to be Taft’s lot in life.

Kennedy (24-4) put runners on the corners with one out in the bottom of the inning, but the game ended in appropriately weird fashion when Ken Bernas bunted in the air to Siegel, who fired to first to double up the runner and end the game.

“I thought I was going to throw it away,” Siegel said.

For favored Kennedy, the final play was part of its tragedy of errors. The Golden Cougars committed four errors and stranded baserunners in scoring position in all but the fifth inning. The miscues offset a head-turning performance by senior catcher David Bourne, who circled the bases in each of his three official at-bats.

Bourne accounted for all of Kennedy’s runs: He hit inside-the-park home runs to lead off the third and fifth, and in the first, sent a bases-loaded liner through the box that nearly decapitated Witkow. The bases cleared when the ball rolled through the legs of center fielder Mike Ferguson, giving Kennedy a 4-1 lead.

“Wanted to make it close,” Ferguson said, grinning.

Said Witkow: “They hit bombs off me. I stink. Bourne owns me.”

Taft scored three in the third to tie, 4-4, keyed by a two-base throwing error by center fielder Rick Nadeau, who fired the ball over the backstop on Gabe Kapler’s single to center. Two runs scored on the play and Kapler scored moments later on a single by Warren Stewart. Nadeau fired the ball over the backstop in the fifth while again trying to throw out a runner at the plate.

Taft’s winning rally was put together with paper clips, scotch tape and nary a hit. With two out, DaShon Polk walked on a borderline 3-and-2 pitch and moved to second when right-hander Miguel Diaz (11-2) hit Adam Shotland in the leg. Left-hander Tom Manning relieved and issued consecutive walks to John Soto and Irving to force in the go-ahead run.