Williams wins dual with Martinez; SHS defends ‘El Toro Series’
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MORGAN HILL — Judging from the way he made Live Oak’s batters swing and miss or ground out Wednesday, when situational hits were at a premium, you can say this much about Ryan Williams of Sobrato: He is as tough to read as his team.
With an all-business 4-1 victory at Sobrato High School, the Bulldogs redefined themselves as the better baseball team in Morgan Hill by a tally of two games to one.
That title meant more to them a year ago. With so much talent back from a club that played for a section championship in 2009, SHS had loftier goals beyond winning the “El Toro Series” with the Acorns.
The first of which remains three games out of reach with six to play.
It is almost too late for the Bulldogs (10-11 overall, 9-6) to win the Mount Hamilton Division pennant, though they can take a step forward today when they host first-place Leland at 3:30 p.m.
The thought of repeating as division runners-up cooled down Williams after his five-hitter.
“We’re hoping this pushes us over the hump,” the 6-foot-4 senior said. “Winning this series was one of the things we marked before the season, but we have a lot more to do. We want to win this thing.”
How are they not? Sobrato third baseman Bryan Bradley mulled.
“The thing with Leland is, it’s frustrating. We have more talent than they do, but they’ve just done a better job getting the big hits when they need them,” Bradley said. “If we beat them next, we take 2 of 3 — that’s huge. (Wednesday) was a big one, but the game of the week for us is (today).”
There was no chance anyone at SHS was looking ahead Wednesday, not while watching the pitching spectacle that Williams co-starred with Live Oak ace Rich Martinez. They went back and forth for seven innings; the most telling statistics being the game’s duration of one hour, 38 minutes, and the pitch count for both righties after six innings: 67. They finished with four strikeouts apiece.
“It was a great battle, almost as good as it gets for us,” Acorns manager Mark Cummins said.
The matchup was close to being postponed because of rain. Cummins’ team arrived from Live Oak High School on time but had to wait patiently while the Sobrato players raked and reraked the infield dirt. Once the drizzle stopped, the game started 15 minutes late.
Williams and Martinez opened their respective halves of the first inning with strikeouts.
“I could tell right away both pitchers were going to be on,” SHS manager Shorty Gutierrez said. “You’d think it would have been sloppy today. No chance, not with these guys. They were hitting their spots and keeping things off balance all day.”
Martinez allowed one more hit than Williams, but timing made the difference. While Sobrato connected singles in the third, fourth and sixth innings, the Acorns (11-10, 6-9) scattered five hits by as many batters, leaving six runners on base.
Junior catcher Cody Van Aken provided Live Oak’s run on a deep drive to right for his team’s first home run of the season. That came after Ryan Muir lined out to start the fourth.
“The most frustrating part is knowing we hit the ball today but not at the right time,” Muir said. “Obviously, it’s frustrating, too, when you waste a start like that from Rich. He was just as good as Ryan, but we didn’t hit like we needed to.”
The Bulldogs led off with a hit in each inning they scored.
Joey Morrison sent a single up the middle to start the third, and, after Alex Hagiperos drew a walk and Tim Andrade bunted, Chris Bradley broke the scoreless tie with a two-run single. An inning later, Sobrato went ahead 3-1 when sophomore Conor Havstad led off with a single and crossed home on Aaron Wallace’s gapper to left-center field.
Morrison scored Bryan Bradley for insurance in the sixth to finish 2-for-3 batting.
“For some reason, their balls found holes, and ours seemed to go right to them,” said Cummins, whose team was error-free. “That’s a tough way to lose to your rival.”
The window was open for LOHS to climb back in the sixth. Muir blooped a single into shallow right-center, and Van Aken reached on a double-play ball that Wallace couldn’t glove at second. Ken Hall grounded into a fielder’s choice on the next at-bat for out No. 2, but Martinez kept the rally alive when he was hit by a pitch. That loaded the bases for Jakob Conlan, who lined out to right.
“It’s going to be tough to move past this one, but we still have a lot of baseball left,” Van Aken said. “We’ve just got to keep working.”
The loss only kept Live Oak from bettering its position in the postseason race. The Acorns stayed in sixth place, a game out of controlling the division’s fourth and final berth in the Central Coast Section playoffs.
Santa Teresa will visit LOHS at 3:30 p.m. today.
“It’s another big game for us,” Cummins said. “They’re all big games from here.”
