NorCal regionals: Live Oak rolls to D-V softball final; Hillsdale loses baseball heartbreaker
Softball
Division V
Live Oak 10, Los Molinos 0
Live Oak overpowered Los Molinos in a five-inning mercy-rule game on Thursday to advance to the Division V final.
The Acorns scored four runs in the first, five in the third and one in the fifth to dispatch visiting Los Molinos.
Live Oak had eight hits and benefited from six Los Molinos errors.
Dre DeJesus started the scoring with a first-inning single that drove in two runs, and then freshman Ava Chapman belted a home run to left to make it 3-0.
Senior Bela Panuco launched the ball over the left field wall to drive in another run a few batters later.
Chapman was 2 for 2 with an RBI, and outfielders Jasmine Mixco and Olivia Mixco each had two hits for the Acorns.
Catcher Mara DiFrancesco had two RBIs, and Panuco and Jasmine Mixco each scored two runs.
Hailey Nguyen and Maya Lamar combined for nine strikeouts in the circle. Live Oak, which improved to 14-11, will play host to North Salinas in the final on Saturday at 4 p.m.
Division III
Ponderosa 7, Pinole Valley 1
Pinole Valley’s incredible season came to an end in a NorCal Division III semifinal at Ponderosa, a school located east of Sacramento.
The home team scored six runs in the fifth inning to bump its one-run lead to seven.
Pinole Valley’s Aneesa Brewer went 2 for 3 and hit a solo home run in the seventh to avoid the shutout, and Ayla Serrano had the visitor’s other hit.
Pinole Valley finished 29-2, with Tri-County Athletic League Rock Division and North Coast Section Division III titles to its credit.
Baseball
Division IV
No. 1 Sutter 6, No. 5 Hillsdale 5
Four outs from a road victory over top-seeded Sutter and a trip to Saturday’s NorCal Division IV championship game, Hillsdale was unable to protect a five-run lead as the Knights lost a heartbreaker in walk-off fashion.
With two outs in the sixth, Sutter pushed across four runs to cut its deficit to one.
An inning later, Logan Yacavace’s one-out single to left drove in two runs to send the home team to the championship game against third-seeded Gridley.
Hillsdale finished 20-10.
The visitors took charge early, scoring two runs in the first and three in the second to lead 5-0.
Blake Cowans had three hits and knocked in two runs and Ethan Ganoza had a hit and two RBIs to lead Hillsdale.
The Knights maintained the five-run cushion through the fifth and struck out a Sutter batter to open the sixth. Rylan Giovannoni then doubled and moved to third on a groundout.
Needing one out to take a five-run cushion to the seventh, Hillsdale walked a batter and then allowed a run-scoring single. The next batter walked and so did the one that followed, to score a second run.
A passed ball on a third strike brought in a third run to make it 5-3. Then another walk with the bases loaded cut the margin to 5-4.
A strikeout ended the inning, but Hillsdale could not hold on in the seventh as Sutter improved to 25-5-1.