SHS, LOHS drop back to seventh, eighth in league with four weeks
left
MORGAN HILL
The Live Oak Acorns have the first rule of survival down pat.
There was no panic as they went through their postgame ritual after Friday’s 3-1 loss to Leland at Sarich Field dropped them to the eighth place in the Mount Hamilton Division. They put bases away, raked and watered the infield and calmly discussed how they can salvage this baseball season.
“Fix the little mistakes,” senior Nick Pusateri said.
“Make the easy plays simpler,” sophomore Jalen Salazar added. “Don’t try to do too much.”
The Acorns had it easy in 2010. They needed only to dig themselves out of seventh place and a 6-9 start to make the Central Coast Section playoffs, a walk in the park compared to what they must do in their final 10 games to avoid missing the postseason for the second time in 19 years.
“We’re going to have to win seven of those to qualify,” Live Oak manager Mark Cummins said, sounding slightly concerned. “We’re running out of time. We need to get some wins here we’ll be watching the playoffs and not in them.”
Having beaten the top two teams — Willow Glen, Pioneer — in the division, the Acorns (6-10, 3-9) are confident they can turn things around despite their 2-8 mark in the last 10 games.
Their biggest weakness remains timely hitting, which was at a premium Friday. Trailing 2-0 in the sixth inning, Live Oak was poised to break through against Leland starter Zach Orozco after Pusateri and Cody Van Aken led off with singles. Pusateri later scored on a single by Dominic Bejarano, who batted two for three. The Acorns loaded the bases on Salazar’s one-out bloop-single into shallow center field only to have Rich Martinez and Matt Zarubi fly out in the next at-bats.
“It’s frustrating because we know we can hit the ball,” said Salazar, who is batting a team best .333. “It’s not like we’re under pressure right now. We’re just beating ourselves up. We know we’re a better team than this.”
The defending-league champion Chargers (5-9, 4-8) got the run back an inning later to help seal the win for Orozco (2-3), who went the distance with eight strikeouts.
“He was hitting his spots, but we could hit him,” Pusateri said. “We’ve just got to battle. We kind of let up in a couple at-bats, and it cost us. That’s how it goes in close games.”
Martinez (1-5), struck out four and walked two in six innings of five-hit ball. The senior was credited with all three runs but was spared two big by his catcher; Van Aken foiled a squeeze bunt in the fourth, tagging out Robert Moffatt on a crisp throw by Bejarano from first, and ran down Matt McLaughlin along the third-base line in the seventh.
“Richie pitched OK, good enough we could build off him,” Cummins said. “We had a couple chances on offense. (That’s) kind of the way our season’s been.”
As it was for them a year ago at this time. Like their 2010 version, the Acorns are in survival mode much earlier than they would prefer.
“Things aren’t coming together when we need them to,” Martinez said. “We’ve been here before. We know how to handle the pressure.”
While Friday brought only scattered showers to Morgan Hill, the sky continued to fall for Sobrato baseball as well. The Bulldogs lost for the seventh time in eight games by 2-0 score to Branham and were one-hit by Bruins starter Rob Anderson.
Aaron Wallace (0-1) went three innings for Sobrato with one strikeout and two runs allowed in as many hits, and Tanner Di Sibio had four strikeouts in the final four, plus the Bulldogs’ only hit.
Sobrato (5-9, 4-9), now seventh in the Mount Hamilton Division, needs to win seven of its remaining nine games to become postseason eligible.
Playoff baseball is just around the corner. The locals can only decide when it begins in Morgan Hill.
