Against eighth-place Leigh, Sobrato misses chance to move within
a game of Leland
MORGAN HILL — How’s this for a turnaround? The Live Oak Acorns can start talking about magic numbers.
That scenario seemed far off a month ago, when the team endured a 3-8 stretch that dropped them to as low as seventh in the Mount Hamilton Division. Live Oak was pushed to the brink but never fell off.
Now, the Acorns can duck into the top four by the end of this week.
They captured a sixth victory in seven tries Monday, getting a strong seven innings from their junior ace, Rich Martinez, and run-scoring hits by Ken Hall, Ryan Muir, Cody Van Aken and Martinez to hold off Branham, 7-5, at Sarich Field.
Live Oak (13-10 overall, 8-9 league) can fulfill one playoff standard with a victory Wednesday at Pioneer, thus clinching at least a .500 overall finish, and another one by winning three of its remaining four Mount Hamilton games. That would be more than enough to lock up one of the four postseason invites allotted to the Mount Hamilton.
Martinez (4-4) delivered another big-game performance, keeping the Bruins off balance early while Live Oak built a 7-2 lead with three runs in the first and four in the fourth. Martinez struck out three and yielded two earned runs on six hits and one walk in his third complete game this spring.
Hall finished 2 for 3 with a double and two RBIs, and Muir singled and tripled.
The Acorns’ runs were scored by seven different players: Michael Schreiber, Ryan Hennings, Sean Silveira, Nick Pusateri, Van Aken, Hall and Muir.
Starting pitcher Nick Rossetta doubled twice and collected two RBIs for Branham (10-12, 7-10), which rallied with two runs in the fifth and one in the sixth. The Bruins also received a sacrifice fly by Jay Jang and RBIs from Aaron Reeves and Robby Anderson.
Rossetta (3-3) gave up one earned run on four hits in 3 2-3 innings.
Live Oak will play the second of three games this week at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at Pioneer. Friday, the Acorns will travel to play Westmont, which holds a half-game lead for fourth place.
Leigh 8, Sobrato 7
At Sobrato High School, eighth-place Leigh prevailed in a 10-inning marathon that cost SHS a chance to move within a game of division-leader Leland.
Sobrato managed to score twice in the 10th after the Longhorns (4-17-1, 4-12-1) broke a 5-5 tie with three runs in the top half.
The Chargers also lost, 2-1, Monday at Santa Teresa but remain comfortably on top in the Mount Hamilton with four games left. The Bulldogs (11-12, 10-7) are now tied with Santa Teresa for second.
Sobrato will play a 3:30 p.m. game at Westmont on Wednesday.
