Dramatic wins are becoming the norm at Live Oak.
For the third time in five games, the Live Oak baseball team scored the game-winning run in its last at bat, this time to defeat Santa Teresa 3-2 Thursday.
Michael Porras hit an RBI double to deep right center field to score Justin Sanders from second and was promptly mobbed by his teammates on the field.
Porras’ shot came with two outs in the bottom of the seventh and was anything but a for sure hit.
The ball, while hit deep, hung in the air as the Saints’ center and right fielders converged on it. But the ball found gap between the two fielders and fell, leading to a celebration on the field for the third straight time at home.
“Honestly there was so much going through my head while I was on the bases, I didn’t realize it fell until the guys started coming out of the dug out and start running toward me,” Porras said.
Live Oak won on a walkoff single against Gilroy on April 8 and hit a game-winning sacrifice fly against Sobrato on April 11.
“When you win games in the seventh, it’s the result of having the opportunity to do it, not because you ended up blowing the game,” said coach CJ Goularte.
He pointed to losses earlier in the season where Live Oak blew leads late in games and didn’t have a chance to recover, but this time he gave credit to the boys for recovering from making a late mistake and not having it taken them out of the game.
Porras not only hit the game-winning double, but he also picked up the W on the mound.
He threw a complete-game, four-hitter, giving up two unearned runs with two walks and striking out eight.
Coach CJ Goularte was happy his team showed it can come up with the timely hits to win games, but was shaking his head that the Acorns were in that position to begin with.
“I prefer that we execute plays and not have to go to the walkoff, but you’re happy that we were able to come back after making mistakes and fight back,” Goularte said. “We’ve been working and preaching to them about continuing to fight and keep going … Things will workout in their favor, they just have to keep fighting.”
Live Oak was leading 2-0 going into the top of the seventh when Santa Teresa led off with back-to-back singles back up the middle.
Jack Leglu attempted to move the runners over with a sacrifice bunt, but it was hit too sharply and went back to Porras who turned and threw it to the shortstop covering third.
The throw beat the lead runner, but the shortstop bobbled the ball and loaded the bases.
Porras almost got out of the game with minimal damage, educing a double-play ball that would have at allowed one run to score, but put Live Oak one out from winning the game.
The Acorns got the runner at second, but the throw to first short hopped the first baseman and went to the fence.
That allowed the tying run to score on the error.
In the bottom half of the inning, Sanders reached safely when he hit a one-out bullet to the second baseman, who had the ball skip off his glove as he went to the back hand.
After Josh Alaniz flew out to right field, Kyle Riveron moved Sanders to second with a single setting up Porras.
Porras came into the inning being hitless in three at-bats, including a pair of flyouts to center and to right.
“The last couple of games, I’ve been struggling to get a good piece on the ball, but first two at bats, I was able to get a good piece (but hit) line drives straight to guys,” Porras said. “So I knew I had a good approach and I had to treat it like any other at bat. I was calm. Even though I was pretty pumped up through out the game, I was able to calm myself down in that at bat.”
In the early going, both sides threatened but couldn’t get that first run across the plate.
In the second, Zach Riveron attempted to score from second on a groundball from PJ Rochon. The ball went to the short stop, who got John Austin out at second, but hand no chance to get Rochon at first. Instead, he threw home and Riveron was gunned down at the plate to end the inning.
Live Oak had a second runner thrown out at the plate to end the third inning in a scary moment that forced Santa Teresa’s to be taken to the hospital.
With Jacob Ryder standing on third, Sanders hit a fly ball to shallow right field.
Ryder tagged up, but the ball beat him to the plate. Ryder collided with catcher Michael Farace, sending Farace’s helmet flying off his head.
Farace lay on the ground for a period of time, but eventually sat up with assistance. He appeared to spit out a tooth, which Santa Teresa coaches collected between innings.
A photo later posted to Twitter showed Farace with five of his front teeth chipped.
Ryder was ejected for causing the collision and Farace was taken out of the game and had to be helped out of the park.
Goularte said he was proud of his boys for keeping their heads in the game after the incident.
“I told them, it was an unfortunate play. He was playing the game hard. It was a baseball play where the kid got hurt. You don’t want to see anyone get hurt. Our guys understood that he was ejected,” Goularte said. “I told them in this game you can find excuses out there or you can look for a way to win. And that’s what they did.”
Goularte said the boys responded by not cowering in the face of Santa Teresa’s players being mad at the play, noting that to be a playoff contender, you have to stand up to teams that are displeased with something that happened on the field.
Because of ejection rules, Ryder missed Friday’s game against Fremont-Sunnyvale.
The Acorns finally got on the board in the fourth inning, when Kyle Riveron legged out an infield single and stole second.
After Porras flew out, Kyle Riveron stole third and his brother Zach Riveron drew a walk.
Zach stole second uncontested, setting up Austin who singled to score Kyle Riveron and sending Zach Riveron to third.
After Austin stole second uncontested, Rochon singled to score Zach.
Zach Riveron went 1-1 with two walks and a run scored.
“I’m so proud of Zach. When you talk about a grinder, he is that; he is that guy,” Goularte said. “Early part of the season, he wasn’t swinging the bat that well, getting frustrated, but he kept working. He kept grinding it out. Now here he is. He is one of the most important players in the lineup.”
Meanwhile, Santa Teresa was finding it hard to get base runners despite Porras struggling to find the strike zone early on.
He started the game going to three-ball counts against the first three hitters and walked a batter in the second inning.
“I get pumped up when I pitch. It’s been a trend lately and I like it but in this game I was a little too pumped up, especially when that guy got hit at home plate,” Porras said. “All the reaction by the other players, this is my family, so I got pumped. But I found a way to focus on each pitch, calm myself, breathe and take it one pitch at a time.”
But in all cases, Porras found a way to get outs, retiring six of the first seven batters.
“That’s the sign of a good pitcher,” Goularte said. “A good pitcher manages to get outs and make pitches when he doesn’t have his best stuff. He was excited and he was pumped today and that was evident because his ball was up today.”
He finally gave up successive hits in the third inning, but only faced three hitters that inning.
Porras picked off Anthony Corral from second for the first out then Austin threw out Elyah Aranda trying to steal second and finally Porras struck out Brendan Abatecola to end the inning.
Abatecola had tried to lay down a bunt during his at bat, leading to Corral wondering too far off second and Aranda becoming a lame duck at first.
