Live Oak win and Hollister loss puts Acorns in first place
There were shouts and cheers in the Live Oak dugout Saturday after hearing the word that Gilroy had just defeated Hollister 3-1. Combined with the easy 11-1 victory over North Salinas, Live Oak (17-9, 11-3 TCAL) guaranteed at least a share of the Tri-County Athletic League title.
If Live Oak beats Gilroy, who won the last meeting, on the road on Tuesday, the team will hold the title all alone. Ryan Muller will go on the mound against Gilroy. Because the CCS playoffs don’t start until next Wednesday, Muller will also pitch then as well.
“We are obviously going to play to win against Gilroy,” said Live Oak coach Mark Cummins. “We are normally a very caring, sharing coaching staff. But when it comes to championships, we want to be selfish. We don’t want any let downs going into CCS.”
The Acorns made the most of their seven hits and ten walks against North Salinas. A couple of seldom used pitchers have come up big recently for Live Oak. After Dylan Regan defeated Palma the previous game, Eric Abbott pitched all five innings, giving up just one run.
“They certainly got us over the bump in a couple critically games,” Cummins said. “Both of the guys coming through really helped us quite a bit, and that bodes well for those guys next year, although we’re not worrying about the future right now.”
Live Oak used a couple errors in the fourth inning to break open the game with ten runs.
Andrew Cummins was 3-for-3, Dave Newton had a triple and two RBIs and Muller had a two-RBI single. Steve Connor, who recently moved into the designated hitting spot, has been on fire and came up with three RBIs.
