Live Oak manager Barry McDonnell has a sneaky side to him. While
his players took the field Friday at Leland High School, thinking a
postseason berth was at stake in their regular-season finale,
McDonnell knew an invitation had already been signed, sealed and
delivered to the Acorns a day earlier, with league rival Mount
Pleasant forfeiting games because of an ineligible player. As a
result, Live Oak clinched the fourth and final playoff spot in the
Mount Hamilton Division
SAN JOSE
Live Oak manager Barry McDonnell has a sneaky side to him.
While his players took the field Friday at Leland High School, thinking a postseason berth was at stake in their regular-season finale, McDonnell knew an invitation had already been signed, sealed and delivered to the Acorns a day earlier, with league rival Mount Pleasant forfeiting games because of an ineligible player. As a result, Live Oak clinched the fourth and final playoff spot in the Mount Hamilton Division.
McDonnell waited until the right time to tell his players Friday — after they lost 9-2.
“We kept it under out hats. We wanted them to play hard, play to win,” he said. “They were pretty happy when they found out we qualified.”
The feeling was more of relief for McDonnell and his staff. Their talented club’s 2011 campaign was almost derailed by a lengthy winter season and an overseas field trip that curtailed early season team-building.
The Acorns (14-13) overcame that in time to earn an eighth seed in the Division II Central Coast Sectional. They host No. 9 Los Altos (14-11), runner-up in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League’s El Camino Division, at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
“It would have been frustrating to have a team with this much talent not be able to at least show what they can do in the playoffs,” said McDonnell, whose team benefited from a home run by Kayla Cisneroz and a three-for-four effort by Priscilla Orona on Friday. “Plus this is a personal gain for the younger players. We’re building for the future.”
McDonnell sees Los Altos as an attractive first-round opponent. The winner plays top seed Archbishop Mitty (23-2) in Saturday’s quarterfinals.
“We have a real good chance with Los Altos, two evenly matched teams,” McDonnell said. “It’d be nice for us to win there, then go in and beat Mitty and have the rumors spread about how good Live Oak is again.”
Back in Morgan Hill, the Bulldogs beat Independence 11-3 on Senior Day at Sobrato High School to complete a second plus-.500 finish — but fell agonizingly short once again of a first CCS playoff berth.
Sobrato’s fate was sealed Tuesday and Wednesday with respective road losses to Lincoln and Evergreen Valley. Several SHS starters were unavailable for those games because of advanced placement testing.
“That is a sad way to end the season, but we’re still proud of the way we did,” senior pitcher Katie Machado said. “We had a lot of fun this year.”
