Poised for a sweep of rival Gilroy High, the Live Oak High
baseball team lost its way, blowing a six-run lead en route to a
disappointing 7-6 loss in garlic town on Friday.
Poised for a sweep of rival Gilroy High, the Live Oak High baseball team lost its way, blowing a six-run lead en route to a disappointing 7-6 loss in garlic town on Friday.
After winning a 2-0 decision in the series opener in Morgan Hill on Tuesday last week, and jumping out to a six-run lead in Friday’s series finale, Live Oak looked to be well on its way of taking sole possession of second place in the league standings. (The Acorns were tied for second place with the Mustangs in the Tri-County Athletic League standings going into the game.)
But senior starter Eric Abbott lost his command, after three scoreless innings of work, and then the Acorn bullpen could not hold off a Gilroy charge in the late innings.
The once comfortable six-run cushion slowly turned into a 6-6 tie score by the sixth, forcing the game into extra innings. Live Oak could not capitalize on a bases-loaded situation in the top of the eighth, and Gilroy scored the game-winning run in the bottom half to hand the Acorns the loss.
“We knew Gilroy was going to battle us. No lead is safe against them. You have to give Gilroy credit for battling back,” Live Oak skipper Mark Cummins said. “It was a good high-school ballgame. Both teams battled. It was very competitive, but you can’t give up a six-run lead like that.”
As a result, the Acorns dropped to 6-4 in the TCAL and 10-10 overall. The Mustangs boosted their league mark to 7-3 and overall record to 13-5.
Gilroy also pulled to within one game of first-place Palma, which lost to Hollister 7-6 on Friday.
“I think we took a huge step forward to being a tougher team today. We came up with the clutch hits,” Mustang skipper Clint Wheeler said. “These kind of games are what develop character. The guys have been tested. I think it will help us down the stretch with five games to go.”
Gilroy split its opening series with the Chieftains and will host them on Tuesday, May 4 for one of its final five league games. (Each T-CAL team plays a two-game series against one another the first time through and then the teams play single games to close out the schedule.)
Live Oak was swept in its two games against Palma, but will play the Chieftains on May 6 and then finish off the regular season with a May 10 home game against the Mustangs.
“Obviously, after getting the first game, we wanted the sweep. Hopefully, Palma lost to Hollister,” said Cummins before hearing of the Palma-Hollister result. “If they did, we’re still in it. We’ve just got to finish games and play better.”
The Acorns jumped all over Gilroy starter Anthony Lucio, who was relieved by righthander Peter Mickartz with two outs and the bases loaded in the second inning.
Second baseman Andrew Cummins led off the game with a double and a dropped ball in left field put two Acorns on base for Dave Newton, who connected for an RBI single to left for a 1-0 lead.
First baseman Steve Conner followed with a sacrifice fly to center to give Live Oak a 2-0 edge.
Gilroy was retired in order by Abbott in its first at-bats, and the Acorns went right back to work on Lucio.
Abbott led off the second inning with a single and outfielder Bryce Wilson followed with a double to left to put runners on second and third.
After a line-out and a fielder’s choice, Newton came up with another RBI base knock to center and Conner then got his second RBI single on the day for a 4-0 lead.
Following a scoreless third inning for both squads, Live Oak added two more runs in the fourth on Newton’s third straight RBI single and then a wild pitch bringing in another run for a 6-0 advantage.
Gilroy finally got to Abbott in the bottom of the fourth with two runs on back-to-back RBI singles from Carlos Garcia and Lucio to pull within 6-2.
One inning later, Abbott was replaced by reliever Dylan Regan, who balked a runner in and then forced in another with a bases-loaded walk to make the score 6-4.
Live Oak then turned to reliever Ralph Castro to get them out of the fifth, still maintaining a two-run lead.
But in the sixth, the Mustangs received a power surge off the bat of first baseman Ben Hemeon – who smacked a 360-foot homer run over the left-center field fence off Newton, the Acorn closer, to tie the score at 6-6.
“Huge,” said Wheeler of Hemeon’s fifth home run of the season. “He makes great adjustments. He’s much more selective. He went from being an okay player last season to possibly a (Division I) hitter this year. He’s made huge, huge strides.”
Hemeon is two homers shy of tying Gilroy High’s single-season record. He is also on pace to break several other single-season school records with a .500 batting average and more than 40 RBIs.
With no runs by either team in the seventh inning, the league battle entered extra innings.
Live Oak had the bases loaded with two outs in the eighth, but Connor flew out to left field to end the threat.
In Gilroy’s half of the eighth, Hemeon was hit by a Newton pitch and then stole second. Newton then intentionally walked the next batter, Mark Gonzales, and issued a free pass to Chris Hernandez.
With bases loaded, Mickartz ended the game with a fly ball to right field that was dropped and brought home Hemeon.
Live Oak hosts Hollister on Wednesday and plays at North Salinas on Saturday this week.
