Live Oak to face Menlo in quarterfinals Saturday
MORGAN HILL — The way he sounded, Live Oak first baseman Ken Hall might have traded two grand slams for Nick Pusateri’s single in the seventh inning Wednesday.
Hall smacked a four-run shot over the left-field wall at Sarich Field in the first inning, and Pusateri laced a bases-loaded grounder through the hole between second and third to lift the Acorns past visiting San Lorenzo Valley 6-5 in a Central Coast Section Division III playoff opener.
Hall’s blast was the second home run of the season for sixth-seeded Live Oak, but his team needed more to stave off the pesky No. 11 Cougars from the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League.
“It took all of us to make it happen,” said Hall, who drove in Pusateri, Ryan Muir and Cody Van Aken. “I’d definitely take Nick’s hit over mine. He put us in the next round.”
Live Oak (17-11), winner of four straight and 11 of its last 13, will play No. 3 Menlo at 2 p.m. Saturday in a quarterfinal at Hartnell College.
With their bats pinging to the tune of 13 hits and Rich Martinez pitching as strongly as ever in his first playoff game, the Acorns were primed to return to the top of Division III after missing the postseason for the first time in 17 years in 2009.
That is until the fifth inning when San Lorenzo Valley (11-12) scored three unearned runs off two errors. The Cougars plated two more against closer Nick Robles (3-0) in the seventh to tie it, but Live Oak went right back to work in the bottom half.
“We showed a lot of heart battling back after we lost control,” Acorns manager Mark Cummins said. “We’ve been playing that well the last four weeks, but we still have lapses here and there.”
So it goes with a young team. Live Oak started three underclassmen and though some plays got away from them, they were just as instrumental in the winning effort.
Freshman shortstop Sean Silveira countered a few errors with a picturesque relay throw home to Van Aken to nail Trent Scott in the fifth. Silveira was hit by a pitch in the seventh to keep alive a rally that started with a single by freshman Aiden Stycinski, who scored the winning run.
“It’s hard to stay up when you make mistakes. We help each other stay positive,” Silveira said. “We know we have the bats to stay in the game.”
Sophomore center fielder Jakob Conlan tripped while chasing a fly ball that became an RBI double by Zach Settles in the fifth. But Conlan also contributed a single in a big first inning when Live Oak batted through the order.
Conlan is scheduled to start on the hill Saturday.
“We’re hoping he can throw strikes, mix up his speeds and throw Menlo off. He needs to be tough,” Cummins said of his lefty. “The key is how we play defense behind him, too.”
That could be tough without starting center fielder Michael Schreiber, who sat Wednesday with a pulled muscle. The fleet senior may be available to pinch-hit, Cummins said.
Martinez moved into Schreiber’s lead-off spot and batted 3 for 5 with singles. Pusateri picked him up with three singles as well, plus a sacrifice bunt in the second when Live Oak went ahead 5-0 on Van Aken’s RBI single to left.
Van Aken singled twice and reached base on a catcher’s-interference call in the first.
Martinez struck out two and yielded eight hits and two free passes in six-plus innings.
“Their starting pitcher just threw strikes. He led almost every batter off with a strike in the first two rounds,” said Cougars manager Ross Parmenter, who played under Cummins’ brother, Mike, at Santa Clara University. “Live Oak’s always had quality pitching. They’re a class team. To put up the kind of numbers we did today and come back to tie it; you have to feel good about that.”
After Billy Mullins singled, Nick Lipperd doubled and Ryan Morse was hit by a pitch, Robles took over with the bases loaded and no outs. The big senior put away Settles on an RBI groundout, but cleanup hitter Tyler Gilbert followed with a single to tie it.
Robles struck out Rick Alves and induced a groundout to end the threat.
“It was a tough situation to be in. I think Robles and Rich pitched well, though,” Hall said. “They kept us in position to win.”
Gilbert reached base in all four plate appearances, batting 3 for 4, and pitched the final five innings after Settles worked the first two. Gilbert struck out four.
Pusateri faced him with the intention to try for a squeeze bunt in the final inning, but Cummins called it off when he saw Lipperd cheat in at first.
“I gave him the base-hit sign, and he came through,” Cummins said. “This is how we’ve been doing it the second half of the season. When you stick together and do your best, good things are going to happen.”
NOTE: Menlo (22-6), a power-hitting club from the West Bay Athletic League, beat No. 14 North Monterey County 11-1 in the first round. The Live Oak-Menlo winner will advance to Tuesday’s semifinals in San Jose Municipal Stadium.
