The Live Oak baseball team got the better of Del Mar on Tuesday, defeating the Dons 12-5 in the Blossom Valley Athletic League Santa Teresa opener for both teams.
“A win feels amazing,” said Live Oak pitcher/left fielder Aaron Armijo. “We came out here today thinking we got to win this game -- our first league game. We don’t want to start off bad, so we came out to win.”
The Dons scored four of their five runs in the second inning.
To end the first, Armijo hit a triple with two out to bring in Sean Silveira and John Forestieri.
“Today we did good reducing the errors on the infield,” said Armijo. “We came up to the plate and attacked. If we can keep playing like this, then I think our season’s going to be really great. We have a little pitching to work on.”
Del Mar immediately responded in the second after loading the bases. Both Stephan Vranich and Justin Carter knocked in runs to tie the game 2-2 and Kristian Ramirez drove home two more to give the Dons a 4-2 lead.
The Acorns were unfazed. They proceeded to score seven runs in their half of the inning, highlighted by two-run doubles by Adrian Garcia and Forestieri.
The bats were silent on both sides until the sixth when Armijo hit a solo home run.
“We were winning as it is, but I just wanted to get a hit,” said Armijo. “Going through the season not getting many hits so far -- I’m in a slump -- but I got it. I saw the first pitch fast ball, so I just hit it.”
Zach Riveron also scored on a wild pitch in the inning and then Quadros knocked one in to put Live Oak ahead 12-4 -- and it was not seriously threatened thereafter.
Del Mar (5-3, 0-1) is at Silver Creek on Thursday, while Live Oak (3-6, 1-0) visits Evergreen Valley.
“It was a good win for the guys -- they’ve been working hard," Live Oak coach C.J. Goularte said. "This is part of a process; today was definitely a step forward in that process. We’ve had a couple of bad innings in the past few games, but we were seeing signs of progress."
