Pitching paces Live Oak in opener, bats erupt in second win over
Warriors
The Live Oak baseball team opened the Blossom Valley Athletic League Mount Hamilton Division season with a pair of victories over Westmont.
The Acorns shut out the Warriors 4-0 on Thursday and routed them 14-3 in Saturday’s make-up game from the team’s Tuesday rainout.
Live Oak got a strong pitching performance from senior Blaine Sutton in the opener. He scattered three hits and struck out six over six innings to pick up his second win of the year.
“Blaine is off to a tremendous start of the season,” Acorns’ coach Mark Cummins said of the lefthander who has not allowed an earned run over 11 innings pitched this season. “He is locating his pitches and he competes on every pitch.”
The Acorns scored twice in the first inning. Stephen Smith led off the inning with a single and Eddie Gomez
followed with doubled off the left field wall to put runners on second and third. Matthew Cummins delivered an RBI groundout and Adam Perez followed with a run-scoring double.
Live Oak added a run in the third inning on a two-out single by sophomore Tony Austin, scoring Cummins who had singled and stole second to get into scoring position.
The Acorns scored again in the fourth inning on an RBI single by Smith to drive in Tim O’Rourke, who had reached base on a fielders choice.
In the Saturday game, a first-inning rally by Westmont was halted by a defensive gem by sophomore second baseman Connor Sutton. With runners on first and third and one out, a ground ball was hit to Sutton. The ball took a bad hop over Sutton’s head, but he was able to bare hand the bad hop and flip to second base to start an inning ending double play.
“That was a big-time play that helped us get out of trouble,” Mark Cummins said.
The Acorns took the lead in the second inning when Mike Sorci led off with a single and Cameron Willis followed with a long double. With one out in the third inning, Cummins singled and later scored on an Austin single.
With the Acorns ahead 2-0, the Warriors rallied for three runs in the bottom of the third.
Live Oak sophomore Alika Bantilan came into pitch in relief of starter O’Rourke and struck out the two hitters he faced to stop the rally.
The Acorns answered with three runs, all with two outs in the top of the fourth. O’Rourke reached on an error and later scored on a single by Gomez. Gomez advanced to third on a Cummins single and scored on a balk. Perez singled to drive in Cummins with the third run of the inning.
Live Oak broke the game open in the sixth inning. Gomez was hit by a pitch to start the inning and scored when Cummins blasted a home run to right centerfield. With one out, Austin and Sorci walked, Willis singled to load the bases and Joe Forestieri grounded out to shortstop to plate pinch runner Chris Nicholls. Smith later doubled in pinch runner Jeff Mounteer and Willis.
The Acorns added four more runs in the seventh inning, highlighted by an O’Rourke two-run single as the Acorns finished with 16 hits. Cummins led the offense with five hits and three runs scored.
“It is great to see our bats come alive so early in the season,” Mark Cummins said. “We know it is a long season so we will continue to work hard and improve.”
Live Oak is now 5-1 overall, 2-0 in league and takes on Pioneer on the road today and returns home to Live Oak on Thursday against Pioneer. Both games start at 3:30pm.
