Leave it to arch-rivals Live Oak and Gilroy to hook up in a wild
affair like Monday
’s regular season finale.
Leave it to arch-rivals Live Oak and Gilroy to hook up in a wild affair like Monday’s regular season finale.
Playing for second place in league on a wind-blown diamond, the Acorn baseball team outlasted the Mustangs 15-14 in Tri-County Athletic League action at Sarich Field.
It was a game that started out as a tightly played, low-scoring contest before opening up into a circus-like, high-scoring free-for-all featuring everything from wind-blown popups turning into RBI base hits to a 410-foot, record-setting home run blast.
“That was a wacky high school baseball game with the wind blowing and two arch-rivals going at it,” Live Oak coach Mark Cummins said. “You couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Capping a four-game winning streak to close its regular-season schedule, Live Oak (10-5 in TCAL, 14-11 overall) claimed second place in the final league standings and the TCAL’s second automatic berth in the Central Coast Section playoffs, which begin next week.
TCAL champion Palma earned the league’s other automatic bid, while Gilroy and Hollister-San Benito are also expected to earn at-large berths.
But Monday’s game may well have transcended mere CCS playoff berths, league standings and final records.
This was a game for pride and it turned out to be a contest for the ages.
Breaking open a 3-2 score with a nine-run fifth inning to take a seemingly insurmountable 11-3 lead, Live Oak watched as Gilroy rallied to within a run on a pair of scoring outbursts in the last two innings.
“I’ve got to give (Gilroy) credit — they did the same thing to us down there (in Gilroy), coming back from a deficit,” Cummins said. “They never give up and just keep battling.”
“I wanted to 10-run them but that didn’t happen,” senior first baseman Steve Conner said. “They just kept on hitting the ball. We were throwing strikes but they kept hitting them.”
Trailing 15-9 going into the top of the seventh, the Mustangs scored five runs and had the potential tying run on base before Acorn reliever Eric Abbott got the final out.
“It was one of those games where it looked like the team that was up last might win it,” Cummins said. “It was kind of like I wasn’t worried if they scored more in that last inning because I figured we’d score a few more ourselves.”
Gilroy coach Clint Wheeler said he was proud of his team’s never-say-die attitude.
“All year long, they battle and they battle,” Wheeler said. “They did kind of hurt themselves early not shutting down the big innings, but they battle back. Down by so many runs to a good team, they battle back and that makes it exciting.”
It didn’t start out that way, though, as starting pitchers Kyle Mosbrucker and Carlos Garcia were mostly in command early in the game.
But in its big fifth inning — the inning that started the basepath merry-go-round, Live Oak batted around and scored all nine of its runs in the inning before Gilroy could get an out.
The big hits in the innings included an RBI double by Dave Newton to claim the lead, a two-run double by Conner to knock out Garcia, an RBI single by Jared Kwock, a two-run single by Doug Porras (his second hit of the inning) and an RBI single by Bryce Wilson (his second hit of the inning) that capped the scoring in the inning.
But Gilroy answered right back with six runs in the top of the sixth inning to get back in the game, knocking out Mosbrucker in the process.
The big hits in the inning were RBI singles by Ron Colmon and Josh Sterling, an RBI double by Marty Susaita, and the big blast of the inning — Ben Hemeon’s 410-foot three-run homer to straightaway centerfield.
The dinger was Hemeon’s school-record eighth of the season.
The senior first baseman also had two doubles and a total of six RBIs, almost singlehandedly keeping the Mustangs in the game.
But Hemeon said getting the record was bittersweet.
“It feels good to get the record, but we didn’t pull it off at the end,” he said.”We battled with those guys, though. They have a great team. That was a pretty crazy game. Back and forth, back and forth.”
With its commanding lead cut to 11-9, Live Oak reasserted itself in the bottom of the sixth.
RBI singles by Nick Larice and Daniel Salinas preceded a wild pitch and an error that scored two more runs to put the Acorns up 15-9.
In the top of the seventh, Gilroy rallied again on three walks to load the bases, an RBI fielder’s choice by Sterling, an RBI double by Sustaita and a two-run double to deep center by Hemeon that looked like it might go out but bounced over the 400-foot sign for a ground-rule double.
An error brought Hemeon home and pulled Gilroy within 15-14 before the final out was recorded.
Live Oak’s four-game winning streak came at an opportune time for the team’s postseason hopes and Thursday’s victory capped a streak of high-scoring offensive outbursts for the Acorns.
Before the streak, Live Oak was struggling in third place with a paltry 6-5 league record and there was some doubt if the team was capable of extending Coach Cummins’ decades-long streak of making the CCS playoffs.
But Live Oak began its unbeaten string with a 15-0 spanking of North Salinas, then followed it up with a 12-0 rout of Salinas.
Both games were ended after five innings due to the 10-run “mercy” rule.
The Acorns added a 10-4 win over league champion Palma on Thursday last week before Monday’s big win that nearly turned into another “mercy” rule game.
“Like I told the guys, the hard work is finally paying off,” Cummins said. “We’re scoring a lot of runs and I like the way we’re hitting the ball right now.”
