Baseball wins, softball loses, tennis finishes season
Live Oak will send four divers to the Central Coast Section playoffs next Thursday at the Santa Clara International Swim Center after the Tri-County Athletic League finals hosted at Live Oak on Wednesday. Lee Bell and Stephen Shope finished in first and second respectively, and Vanessa Hatakeyama and April Ibarra will reprepesent the girls team. A minimum score of 280 is required to advance to the CCS playoffs.
Tennis
HOLLISTER – Live Oak (9-5) finished off its season in Central Coast Section playoffs last week.
The doubles team of Chris Laskoda and Nick Cota lost to Gilroy in the semifinals 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 after defeating Salinas in the first round at Ridgemark. Senior David Lucarelli also made it to the semifinals before losing to Gilroy.
With just two seniors on the team, Live Oak defeated everone in league at least once.
“They are a wonderful group of young men,” said coach Terry Bernard. “They worked hard. We had a lot of fun, and I hope the tennis program can continue at Live Oak. I think they reached their full potential competing with teams like Salinas and Gilroy.”
“We don’t know where the tennis program will be, but they deserve the chance to compete again next year,” Bernard added. “We went through the $50 tennis budget we had kind of quickly. The parents were great.”
Baseball
The Live Oak baseball team defeated Palma 9-3 Thursday afternoon behind the complete-game performance of Dylan Regan.
Regan struck out seven batters and scattered six hits. After walking two batters, who eventually scored, and giving up a run in the second, Regan settled down.
“It was a big game for us to win coming off the loss on Monday,” said Live Oak coach Mark Cummins. “It was an all-round good effort.
Steve Conner, who worked himself into the starting lineup, was on base four times. He had a two-run home run that tied the game in the third inning, hit a double, was hit and walked. Trevor Molyneaux went 2-for-4, Jarod Qwock was 2-for-3, and Ryan Muller and Dave Newton hit doubles.
Softball
The Live Oak softball team was defeated 8-3 by Salinas on Thursday. Live Oak plays at Notre Dame on May 13 and then plays the final game of the season against Gilroy at home. Live Oak has a chance to play spoiler in that game for the Mustangs, who are looking for a playoff spot.
