The Taft High’s varsity boys’ tennis team’s season came to an abrupt end Thursday when they played the unbeaten Yosemite Badgers and kept them that way.

Taft, the No. 1 seed in Division III, lost 6-3 to the No. 4 seed.

“It was a shocking loss for our team and my heart goes out to our players. They tried their best and really wanted to win but Yosemite was just slightly better. Their No. 1 player is seeded No. 5 in the north area (Fresno County) tournament and the rest of their team was just more consistent. The better team won yesterday,” coach Jim Carnal said.

Yosemite’s No. 1 Tyler Hellwig was too polished and experienced and beat third-year player Enrique Reyes, 6-3, 6-2.

At No. 2, Yosemite’s Burke Stewart was slightly steadier than Sawyer Maier, 6-4, 3-6, 11-9.

Taft’s Rodolfo Magana played nearly flawless tennis and made quick work of Logan Cacy, 6-0, 6-1.

Yosemite’s Orion Cicoletti was more consistent than Tyler Nguyen, 6-4, 6-1.

Taft’s Brian Rivera finished the season on a high note by dispatching Kai Hansen, 6-1, 6-0.

Coming off an offseason broken collarbone, Taft’s Jordan Miranda was still not at peak form and lost to Colby Steward, 7-5, 6-4.

Down 4-2, Taft had to sweep the three doubles to win the match. “Yosemite’s 19-year-old coach Steven Standerer, Yosemite’s No. 1 player the past three years, gave us the lineup we wanted. He put his No. 1 player at No. 1 doubles.”

Reyes and Magana lost the first set to Hellwig and Cicoletti but then followed assistant coach Bill Friend’s advice and starting hitting away from Hellwig. The Taft duo, seeded No. 4 in the south area (Kern County) tournament roared back to win, 6-2, 10-7.

Maier, the lead actor in “You’re a good man, Charlie Brown,” had to hustle off for opening night and was unavailable for doubles. Nguyen and Miranda lost to the Burke and Colby Stewart, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3).

In the closest match of the day, Taft’s Bryson Ginn and Antonio Guzman lost to Henry Curley and Ethan Conti, 6-1, 4-6, 15-13.

Taft finished the season 20-7. Yosemite improved to 14-0 and will travel to face No. 2 seed Lemoore in the finals Wednesday.

All six remaining Kern County tennis teams lost on Thursday.

While team tennis is over in Kern County, the south area individual tournament will be held at Wasco today and Saturday.

Rivera, seeded No. 20 in the singles tournament, will play No. 12 seed Mayur Govindj, Liberty’s No. 9 player today. Taft’s two doubles teams were seeded in the top eight and received byes today.

Saturday, Reyes and Magana, the No. 4 seed, will play. If they can win twice they would be the first Taft team to advance to the Sweet 16 Valley individual finals. They will have to get past No. 5 seed, Michael Blaine and Daniel McDonald, Liberty’s Nos. 3 and 8 players. Reyes has the best record on Taft’s team at 27-5 overall and 10-1 in doubles. Magana has the most wins, 32-8.

Maier and Nguyen are seeded 8. The top four teams advance to the Valley finals at Madera South May 18-19.

Taft finished second in league with a 12-2 record behind undefeated Bakersfield Christian, playing its last season in the South Sequoia League that it dominated.

It was the last team match for Carnal. He is retiring in June after 19 seasons coaching the boys and 10 coaching the girls. “I’ve really enjoyed teaching students the great game of tennis and watching them improve dramatically in this lifelong sport. Tennis is like riding a bike; they will always have those skills as long as they live. The past dozen seasons I have had the pleasure of coaching with Bill and Linda Friend and that has been a highlight of my 20 years at Taft High. We have had a great run the past six years. We won two Valley titles and had about a half dozen runners-up,” he said.

The girls team won Taft’s first and only SSL title by sweeping Bakersfield Christian in 2012 and coming from behind to sweep the doubles to beat Liberty Madera, 5-4, for the school’s first and only Division IV title.

Taft’s boys tennis team won the school’s first and only Valley title in 2012 when it beat Immanuel, 7-2, and its first and only league title by sweeping BCHS in 2014.