CCS baseball playoffs: Live Oak doesn’t come up aces as Hollister cruises to Division I final
Hollister, surprised it didn’t face one of Live Oak’s top pitchers, rolls to a five-inning mercy rule victory.
SAN JOSE — Live Oak’s bid for a spot in the Central Coast Section Division I baseball final went sideways in a hurry on Wednesday against Hollister.
With the Morgan Hill school’s two aces unavailable after pitching Saturday, Hollister scored three runs in the first inning at Excite Ballpark – it could have been a whole lot more if Dominic Pereria had not made a sensational catch – and the Haybalers did not look back.
They went on to prevail 10-0 in a five-inning mercy-rule outcome to advance to the championship game on Saturday at Excite against Valley Christian or St. Ignatius.
Live Oak (18-10) reached the semifinals by beating second-seeded Mitty on Saturday. In that game, UCLA-bound Landon Stump threw 107 pitches over 5 ⅔ innings. Stanford-bound Aidan Keenan worked the final 1 ⅓, throwing 28 pitches.
Stump played first base and Keenan second on Wednesday.
Hollister coach Michael Luna said his team prepared for Keenan, who like Stump throws elite-level hard.
“Very surprised that we didn’t see Keenan,” Luna said. “The entire week I thought that was the guy we were practicing to face. We had the machines up to 90-plus. I thought we were going to see him. I don’t know the answer to that.”
Live Oak coach Matt Brotherton would only say that Keenan was unavailable to pitch.
Sixth-seeded Hollister (23-6) went ahead 1-0 when Matthew Pena opened the bottom of the first with a single to center, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on Jaden Mingus’ double to left.
The Haybalers were just getting started.
And with the way Brandon Flores pitched against seventh-seeded Live Oak, Hollister was well on the way to advancing to the final.
The Haybalers ended the game with three runs in the fifth, the last on a wild pitch.
Flores allowed only one hit, a single to left with two out in the fifth, in a brilliant big-game performance.
“He threw all his pitches for strikes and he was getting ahead in the count,” Luna said. “He was determined. One of our strengths is our defense. He knew to get the ball over the plate and allow us to play catch and we’ll be all right.”
Given that all semifinalists in the CCS Division I bracket advance to the NorCal regionals, Live Oak’s season will continue next week.
Asked what he told his players after the loss Wednesday, Brotherton said, “Very tough loss, but we’re not done. The season’s not over. We qualified for state last Saturday when we beat Mitty. Keep that fire. It just got away from us early, snowballed on us, and sometimes that’s baseball.”
Hollister will now set its sights on the final, with its ace, sophomore Trent Roach, ready to go.
