The Live Oak baseball team evened its series with Leigh with an
8-4 victory Thursday to push the Acorns into a tie for first place
in the Blossom Valley Athletic League Mount Hamilton Division.
The Live Oak baseball team evened its series with Leigh with an 8-4 victory Thursday to push the Acorns into a tie for first place in the Blossom Valley Athletic League Mount Hamilton Division.
Live Oak (9-3 overall, 6-2 BVAL) is now even with Santa Teresa, who the Acorns will face at home at 3:30pm today and on the road at 3:30pm Thursday.
In the victory over Leigh, the Acorns jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning.
Leadoff hitter Stephen Smith started the inning with a single and Eddie Gomez was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second.
Matthew Cummins singled to right field to score Smith and Adam Perez followed with a fly ball that was misplayed by the left fielder to load the bases.
Tony Austin singled to score both Gomez and Cummins. With two outs, Alika Bantilan singled to score Austin to make it 4-0.
“It was great to jump out to an early lead but Leigh is a good team and we knew the game was far from over,” Live Oak coach Mark Cummins said.
The Longhorns did respond with four runs in the top of the third inning to tie the score. Starting pitcher Tim O’Rourke was relieved by Cameron Willis, who got the last two outs of the inning.
Willis was relieved by Cummins in the fourth inning with no outs and a runner on second base and he retired three consecutive Longhorns to stop the potential rally.
Live Oak rallied back with four runs in the fifth inning. Austin led off with a walk, Willis followed with a bunt single and Joe Forestieri was hit by a pitch to load the bases before Bantilan ripped a single to right field to score pinch-runner Chris Nicholls and Willis to give the Acorns a 6-4 lead.
O’Rourke followed with a single to left field to score pinch runner Jeff Mounteer and with two outs, Gomez singled home pinch-runner Steven Rodriguez to finish the scoring at 8-4.
“We had some quality at-bats up and down the lineup,” Mark Cummins said.
On the day, the Acorns collected 13 hits, led by Bantilan and Cummins with three each. Gomez and Willis each had two hits.
On the mound, Cummins shut down the Longhorns over the last four innings, striking out four and scattering three singles to earn the win. The Acorns also played strong defense.
“Our outfielders made some nice catches, Cameron (Willis) gets a tremendous jump on the ball and is able to run down a lot of potential gappers and Connor (Sutton) made some nice plays at shortstop when Matthew (Cummins) was pitching,” Mark Cummins said.
Live Oak Alumni Game
The Acorns are looking forward to their annual alumni game. This year’s game is, April 7. The frosh/soph team will play the “older” alums at 10am ,followed by the varsity taking on the “newer” alums at 1pm. All former Acorn ballplayers are welcome. Post game festivities will be at the new Las Palmas Restaurant located at 101 and Dunne.
Details: Mark Cummins at mc********@***oo.com.
