MEGAN MEDLAND, LIVE OAK
Prep2Prep Student Contributor

April 8, 2013

The Live Oak baseball team dominated visiting Gilroy High School 8-1 Saturday afternoon in a non-league matchup of traditional rivals.

“We’ve been playing good baseball for the past few weeks - we just haven’t had as many clutch hits as we did today,” said Live Oak coach C.J. Goularte. “The guys really focused up and started making adjustments with two strikes; some battling with two strikes. We cut down our strikes out and put the ball in play. That’s really the difference in the game.”

Live Oak (6-10) was a powerhouse in the first inning, starting off the game with five runs. After base hits from both Ben Nuno and Justin Sanders, a walk loaded the bases with no outs. Sean Silveira then brought in the two base runners with a single. Another walk, to Jalen Salazar, loaded the bases yet again.

The next batter, Zach Riveron, was hit by a pitch to bring in another run. After getting the first out, Live Oak pitcher Kyle Quadros walked to force in another run. Sean Aitken hit a sacrifice fly to score Salazar to make it 5-0.

“The first inning was good. We played fundamental baseball,” said Live Oak senior catcher Jalen Salazar. “Gilroy just didn’t have it today; we took advantage today. They hit our players and we got a couple of key hits which got some insurance by scoring runs.”

In the second inning, the Mustangs responded with their lone run of the game. Marcus Medina, Dallas Wilson, and Sammy Aptekar loaded the bases with no outs. Alex Vega hit a ground ball to score Medina, but confusion between the base runners then caused a double play at first and second to kill the rally.

The score remained 5-1 for the next few innings.

“It’s a long game. We can’t stop. We have to continue to play,” said Goularte. “You’re not going to score every inning; that’s the reality of it. Quadros was awesome today; it didn’t really matter if we weren’t scoring much because he didn’t give up much.”

“We were hitting the ball, it’s just they were catching it, but we managed,” Salazar added. “Where our offense didn’t pick up; our defense definitely did. Quadros did great today and our defense behind him backed him up.”

The bats on both sides were silent until Live Oak jump-started again with three runs in the fifth inning to extend the cushion to 8-1. With no outs and two runners on base, Silveira hit a double to bring in two runs. Salazar got a base hit and Riveron walked to load the bases. With one out, Quadros drove in Silveira for the game's final run.

“We had two weeks off; that’s no excuse. We had a bad day,” said Gilroy coach Billy Holler. “We can’t win baseball games by hitting batters and walking batters. Live Oak did well today; they capitalized. They should have battled back; they usually do. It was a tough day.”

Gilroy (10-2-1) visits Seaside Monday. Live Oak hosts Pioneer Thursday.