Live Oak defeated Leland 8-4 Thursday to remain in a first-place
tie with Leigh in the Blossom Valley Athletic League Mt. Hamilton
Division. The Acorns are now 12-4 overall and tied with Leigh at
9-3.
Live Oak defeated Leland 8-4 Thursday to remain in a first-place tie with Leigh in the Blossom Valley Athletic League Mt. Hamilton Division. The Acorns are now 12-4 overall and tied with Leigh at 9-3.
Live Oak scored two runs in the first inning. Cameron Willis led off with a single and Eddie Gomez laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance Willis to second.
Willis advanced to third on a ground out. Adam Perez singled to center field to score Willis.
Tony Austin followed with a double down the left-field line to put runners on second and third and Alika Bantilan singled to score Perez, but Austin was thrown out at the plate on a close play to end the inning.
The Chargers answered with a run in the bottom of the first inning to make the score 2-1.
The Acorns added a run in the second inning. Stephen Smith led off with a single, advanced to second base with two outs. Willis singled home Smith to give the Acorns a 3-1 lead.
Live Oak score another run in the fourth inning. With one out, Joe Forestieri walked, advanced to second base with two outs and scored on a single by Tim O’Rourke.
The Acorns put the game away with a four-run fifth inning. Matthew Cummins led off by reaching base on an error. With one out, Cummins stole second base, giving him 17 stolen bases on the season and to tie Justin Jacobs (class of 1994) for the school single-season stolen base record.
Austin drove in Cummins on a single to center field. Bantilan followed with a single and Smith drove Austin in with another single.
Forestieri was hit by a pitch to load the bases. O’Rourke singled to right field to score Bantilan. Willis followed with another single to score Smith and increase the Acorn lead to 8-1.
“It was great to see our hitters have quality at-bats up and down the line up,” coach Mark Cummins said.
Starting and winning pitcher Bantilan (2-0) ran into trouble in the fifth inning, giving up two hits. Cummins relieved Bantilan and completed the inning with the Chargers scoring three runs to make the score 8-4. Cummins retired the Chargers in order in the sixth and seventh innings to finish the game.
“Alika gave us a big lift on the mound; we needed the type of performance he gave us against a good hitting Leland team,” coach Cummins said.
Live Oak had 14 hits on the day, led by Willis and Smith with three each, and Austin, Bantilan and O’Rourke with two each.
The Live Oak frosh/soph team was also victorious Thursday, defeating Leland 9-0. J.P. Howard threw a complete game three-hitter for the Acorns.
