Turlock High hosted Golden Valley High’s softball team on Wednesday, determined to win its first league game of the season. The Bulldogs (0-5 CCC) looked poised to do just that from the beginning of the afternoon matchup against the Cougars (2-3 CCC) but one inning changed everything, resulting in a 14-10 comeback win for Golden Valley.

“We had a lot of hits and played a lot of good innings on defense,” Turlock’s head coach Jill Ogden said. “We just had one bad inning.”

It was the fifth inning that stung the Bulldogs. After scoring multiple runs in the first three innings and taking a 7-0 lead, Turlock’s defense faltered momentarily, allowing Golden Valley to take the lead with 10 fifth inning runs. Up until that point the Cougars were scoreless.

“They got some hits, we made some mistakes and before we knew it they had 10 runs on the board,” Ogden said.

Both teams scored one run a piece in the sixth inning. The Cougars scored twice in the seventh and the Bulldogs scored three times. Turlock nearly had a comeback of its own when it loaded its bases twice, once in the sixth inning and once in the seventh. Unfortunately, there was not enough time to overcome the disastrous fifth inning.

“We need to understand that we can’t rest on leads,” Ogden said. “Golden Valley did a good job coming back so you have to give it to them for that.”

On Friday the Bulldogs visited the Thunder at Buhach Colony High. Turlock gave up 13 runs in the first inning to seal what turned out to be a 24-0 loss. Turlock will now look for its first league win against cross town rival Pitman High on Wednesday in the first of the week’s two matchups between the two schools.