Three weeks after shutting down North Salinas to earn their
first league victory of the season, Live Oak High ace Juliette
Bowers and the Acorn softball team had the tables turned on them on
Thursday.
Three weeks after shutting down North Salinas to earn their first league victory of the season, Live Oak High ace Juliette Bowers and the Acorn softball team had the tables turned on them on Thursday.
While Bowers was nearly as effective as in the first meeting between the two teams, the Live Oak offense sputtered against the host Vikings and managed just one hit in a 1-0 shutout loss.
The loss dropped Live Oak (4-3 in league, 8-7 overall) out of a second-place tie with Hollister-San Benito in the Tri-County Athletic League and into third place.
Hollister (5-3 in league) beat Gilroy 2-0 on Thursday.
Live Oak coach Barry McDonnell said the Acorns simply couldn’t get anything going offensively against the Vikings.
“It’s basically the same pitching we’ve been facing,” McDonnell said. “We’ve had good practices and we were hitting the ball well but not (Thursday).”
Live Oak got its lone hit in the first inning, a single by Samantha Ferry, then struggled to make contact for much of the rest of the game, McDonnell said.
“We had four or five strikeouts early, then toward the end of the game we started hitting the ball but we couldn’t get anything going,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bowers was allowing more than her usually meager share of baserunners, giving up three hits and three walks in six innings of work.
But North Salinas’s only run of the game came on a walk, two stolen bases and a wild pitch. The Vikings improved to 2-5 in TCAL play with the victory.
Live Oak will hope to get back on the winning track at the Watsonville High Tournament on Saturday.
The Acorns open the tourney against Carmel at 11 a.m., then play Mercy Burlingame at 4 p.m.
Live Oak returns to TCAL play next week, hosting Salinas on Tuesday before playing at first-place Notre Dame on Thursday.
