Live Oak’s dream of returning to the Central Coast Section
championship game for the second time in three seasons ended
Tuesday when upstart Stevenson rallied late for a 2-0 win in the
Division III semifinals at PAL Stadium.
By Jeremy Barousse Staff Writer
San Jose – Live Oak’s dream of returning to the Central Coast Section championship game for the second time in three seasons ended Tuesday when upstart Stevenson rallied late for a 2-0 win in the Division III semifinals at PAL Stadium.
“We knew it was going to be a close game,” Acorns coach Barry McDonnell said. “We battled though. We had more strike outs than usual. The girls were nervous, it seems that CCS seems to bring out the nerves in them.”
The sixth-seeded Pirates (17-6-1) broke a scoreless deadlock with a two-run rally in the top of the seventh inning. After a lead-off walk, Stevenson followed with three hits to produce the winning runs and send it to the championship game.
Pirates senior pitcher Caroline Main struck out seven of the first eight batters and had 12 strike outs for the game as she held the second-seeded Acorns to three hits.
Live Oak came close to taking a lead in the fourth inning when senior Taylor Sutton was thrown out at the plate while trying to score on a ball she hit into the left field corner. That proved to be Live Oak’s only real threat of the game.
Senior Tricia Goularte, who led the Acorns with 13 wins this season, had a strong outing in the pitcher’s circle with five strikeouts and had a no-hitter for the first five innings, but it wasn’t enough to propel Live Oak to the title game.
Despite Tuesday’s loss, McDonnell was pleased with the Acorns 24-6 season and said he will miss all five of his seniors.
“The seniors are true leaders,” said McDonnell. “They’ve been real inspirational. They’ve been playing together for a while now and most of them were part of our 2005 championship season.”
Live Oak was a mix of smiles and tears as the players were seen hugging each other in shallow right field after the game.
Sutton, who has earned a scholarship to play at San Diego State, said she loved being around the team and will miss her coaches.
“The girls are great,” Sutton said with dried tears in her eyes. “I loved every minute I was around the team. Our coaches were great. They had tons of advice and I couldn’t have asked for a better season.”
Stevenson will go on to play in its first CCS title game in school history against Notre Dame-Belmont on Saturday at PAL stadium.
McDonnell says he will be looking forward to next year and he hopes to get another group of positive players.
“This team played as a team, McDonnell said. “If we can get a team like this next year, it would be amazing.
