The Live Oak baseball team took another step towards locking up
a Blossom Valley Athletic League Mt. Hamilton Division championship
with a hard earned 5-4 victory over Leland on Tuesday.
Staff Reports
Morgan Hill – The Live Oak baseball team took another step towards locking up a Blossom Valley Athletic League Mt. Hamilton Division championship with a hard earned 5-4 victory over Leland on Tuesday.
The Acorns remain tied with Leigh but own the tie breaker over the Longhorns should the teams stay deadlocked. Live Oak is now 18-7 overall and 15-5 in division play. Results of Thursday’s regular season finale at Piedmont Hills were unavailable at press time.
Leland scored a run in the first inning to take an early lead, but the Acorns answered with two runs in the bottom of the first inning.
With one out, Eddie Gomez singled to center field and Matthew Cummins hit a long triple to right center field to score Gomez and tie the score. After walks to Adam Perez and Tony Austin loaded the bases, Alika Bantilan hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Cummins and give the Acorns the lead.
The Chargers came right back, scoring two runs in the second inning off starting pitcher Blaine Sutton to regain the lead.
Live Oak tied the score in the second inning. With two outs, Cameron Willis doubled down the left field line and Gomez singled to score Willis to tie it at 3-3.
Lance Gemette gave the Chargers the lead in the third inning with a solo home run to left field. That would end the scoring for the Chargers as Sutton settled down after that.
“Blaine struggled a little early but found his rhythm and kept us in the game with his competitiveness,” Live Oak coach Mark Cummins said.
Live Oak took the lead for good in the fifth inning. Perez led off the inning by reaching first base on an error by the shortstop. With one out, Bantilan hit a long home run to left field to put the Acorns ahead 5-4.
“Alika has come through in some big situations in the last two games for us,” Cummins said.
With one out in the sixth inning, Sutton was relieved by Cummins with a runner on first base. Cummins struck out two hitters to end the threat and struck out two in the seventh inning to earn his third save on the season. Sutton raised his record to 6-3 on the mound.
Live Oak collected nine hits, led by Gomez with three and Willis with two.
