Sobrato baseball opened Mount Hamilton Division play with a 5-2 victory over Branham on Thursday at Sobrato High School.
The Bulldogs, led by first-year manager Brian Collom, churned out eight singles, including a 2-for-2 effort by Sean Schlafli, and got eight strikeouts from sophomore Nick Giordano, who got the win.
Sobrato broke a 1-1 tie with three runs in the second inning and plated an insurance run in the fifth.
Javier Jimenez, Eric Guill-Perez, Jerry Jacob and Schlafli collected RBIs for SHS, which pays a visit to the Bruins at 3:30 p.m. today.
In the Santa Teresa Division, Live Oak lost its opener, 6-5, to Evergreen Valley on Thursday at Sarich Field.
Sophomore Mitch Hickey went 2 for 3 with an RBI, and Jalen Salazar and Matt Bergantz drove in runs for the Acorns, who nearly overcame a four-run deficit in the final two innings.
Live Oak’s Jacob Estrada struck out two and allowed one hit in 2 2/3 innings.
The Acorns, now 2-3 under first-year skipper C.J. Goularte, were coming off a 2-1 finish at the Feb. 21-25 Ted Tamone Memorial Tournament at Washington Park in Sunnyvale, with wins over Santa Clara, 11-0, and Independence, 9-6, and a 3-0 loss to Wilcox on the final day.
Live Oak lost its nonleague opener, 12-3, at Christopher on Feb. 20.
Hickey is off to a hot start on the hill, having allowed zero runs in 10 innings with 20 strikeouts to two walks. Senior Jacob Estrada has also pitched well. He has an ERA of 1.62 in eight-plus innings.
Offensively, junior first baseman John Forestieri has stood out for the Acorns early in the season, batting .462 with six hits and three runs. Hickey (.400) has doubled twice to go with four RBIs, and Kyle Quadros and Salazar have driven in three. Junior Aaron Armijo collected three of his club-best five RBIs in the win over Independence.
Softball
Sobrato has started its season 2-0 with wins over Monte Vista Christian, 7-1, on Tuesday and Notre Dame-San Jose, 10-0, on Feb. 24.
Freshmen Samantha Torres and Marissa Heffernan have started their high school careers strong. Torres is batting .429 and has doubled twice, and Heffernan has four RBIs, including a home run against Notre Dame.
Seniors Heather Johnson and Gail Wiselogel are batting .400, also for the Bulldogs. Johnson has scored four runs to go with a team-high five stolen bases.
Sobrato continues nonleague play at 3:45 p.m. at Christopher.
Swimming
The Sobrato boys and girls teams won all but four races in beating Branham on Friday in their first Santa Teresa Division dual meet.
The Sobrato boys won 124-44, and the girls 97-79.
Seniors Adam Jasper and Patrick Read won three events, including the 200-yard medley relay, for the Bulldogs. Jasper touched first in the 200 free and 200-individual medley, and Read took the 100 butterfly and 500 free. Seniors Gio Chau and Logan Bleeg, the other two members of the winning 200 medley relay, helped Sobrato win the two freestyle relays, as Chau swam in the 200, and Bleeg the 400. Freshman Paul Pham swam in the two winning free relays.
For the Sobrato girls, junior Gabrielle Smith and freshman Lauren Akin were part of four first-place efforts, including the medley relay. Smith also won the 200 IM, 200 free and 100 breaststroke, and Akin the 500 free, 100 backstroke and 400-freestyle relay. Sophomore Mya Read contributed in the winning 200-medley and freestyle relays and also won the 200 free.
No Central Coast Section qualifying standards were met.
