How do you celebrate a seemingly impossible comeback victory with two outs in the bottom of the final inning of the section championship game? For the Live Oak High softball team, the answer is simple. You scamper en masse through a sprinkler wetting down the infield for the following game.
Nothing, it seems, could dampen these Acorns’ enthusiasm or get in the way of their celebration this season.
In fact, youthful enthusiasm was the theme for this year’s Acorns, who rode their boundless zeal for the game and each other all the way to the Central Coast Section Division I championship this season.
In fact, the Tri-County Athletic League had a banner season, collecting a pair of CCS champions in LO and Notre Dame, which won the Division III title on Saturday, a runner-up in North Salinas, and a fourth playoff team in Hollister. The TCAL might well have made it five postseason teams if Gilroy had managed an at-large playoff berth that some thought they deserved.
For LO, there were early-season doubts about how good this season’s team could be after five regulars from last season decided not to play for the Acorns for a variety of reasons, including transfer and personal choice.
That left just three regulars returning in senior pitcher Juliette Bowers, junior shortstop Alyssa Adamo and junior catcher April Herrera – all of whom became team captains.
LO made up for the missing returners with a corp of talented underclassmen, including a key contingent from a successful JV team.
With junior Danielle Austin taking over in center field, sophomores Kelly McDonald and Brittney Ondich at the infield corners, and sophomore Sabrina LaCorte in left field, the youngsters immediately made their presence felt.
Throw in precocious freshman second baseman Sarah Locarnini, who stepped into the leadoff spot in the batting order and the lineup was set.
McDonnell said one of the reasons some of the potential returners decided not to play was because they didn’t want to sit on the bench while the talented youngsters played.
While the leap from JV to varsity is often a difficult one, the fact that most of the underclassmen had played together for years on the Morgan Hill Pride traveling team gave them an advantage, according to McDonald.
“A lot of people in the newspaper said we couldn’t do it because of all our underclassmen but we’d been playing together for so long, we knew we could do it,” she said.
Besides, the younger Acorns had a fine leader in the team’s lone senior, Bowers.
“It really comes from the core of this team and Juliette started out the season making everybody feel like an equal part of the team,” McDonnell said. “That was so important in setting the attitude.”
Not that the Acorns didn’t show their youth occasionally, including the early innings of Saturday’s finale when LO gave North Salinas a few runs with shaky defense.
But the Acorns came through in the end, mounting their final charge fueled by the boundless enthusiasm and limitless faith of youth.
