Live Oak High junior pitcher Juliette Bowers overcame a shaky
start to toss a one-hit shutout and lead the Acorn softball team to
a 1-0 victory over visiting North Salinas at Community Park on
Wednesday. Bowers ended up facing just one Viking batter over the
minimum in Live Oak
’s first Tri-County Athletic League victory of the year.
Live Oak High junior pitcher Juliette Bowers overcame a shaky start to toss a one-hit shutout and lead the Acorn softball team to a 1-0 victory over visiting North Salinas at Community Park on Wednesday. Bowers ended up facing just one Viking batter over the minimum in Live Oak’s first Tri-County Athletic League victory of the year.
“Juliette’s just a good pitcher — she has a little more velocity than most pitchers,” Live Oak coach Barry McDonnell said. “Obviously, the first win is nice to get out of the way. We just happened to be on the right side of that 1-0 score this time.”
But it didn’t start out looking like a close game during a wild top of the first inning. Bowers, who didn’t play softball last year, allowed a hit to the Viking lead-off batter, who advanced to second on an error, got an out that advanced the Viking runner to third, then watched as Acorn second baseman Samantha Ferry allowed another North Salinas batter to reach first base while choosing to hold the runner at third.
Ferry’s gamble paid off as Bowers got the next two outs to quell the rally.
Bowers caused the North Salinas batter to miss on an attempted squeeze, nabbing the runner from third when the batter at the plate interfered with Acorn catcher Justine McDonald.
Bowers then got the final out of the inning on a ground ball to third.
It would turn out to be the first two of 20 straight outs, including six strikeouts, that Bowers recorded in the game.
“I mixed it up a lot,” Bowers said. “They started catching on to what we were doing so Justine changed things up a little.”
McDonald, a senior, called a masterful game, helping Bowers keep the Viking batters off-balance. And, she also drove in the winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning on a single through a drawn-in infield that scored Alyssa Adamo, who had doubled.
Live Oak improved to 1-1 in TCAL play, 5-5 overall.
In junior varsity play, Tricia Goularte threw a no-hitter with eight strikeouts to lead the Acorns to a 6-0 win over North Salinas. Goularte was helped by several defensive gems in the outfield. Kelly McDonald had three hits, including a towering home run, and three RBIs.
