Livingston bats go silent against Mountain House

The Livingston High hitters had a tough time getting anything going against Mountain House starter Anthony Wiley.

The Wolves picked up two hits in the third inning and that was it, as Wiley pitched six shutout innings and the Mustangs defeated Livingston 5-0 in the third-place game of the 58th Annual Fran Oneto/Atwater-Winton Lions Easter Baseball Tournament on Thursday afternoon at Memorial Ballpark.

“I knew the guy we were facing was going to be pretty good after talking to their coach before the game,” said Livingston coach Matt Winton, whose team dropped to 10-10 on the season. “(Wiley) is their Friday game and he was throwing on normal rest. I liked him. He had good velocity and good command.

“Early on we had some good licks against him. We had a hit-and-run and hit a line drove to the outfield and hit into a double play. We hit a few balls hard.”

The Wolves best chance to score came in the third inning. With one out out, Blaine Chance singled and Sergio Torres drew a two-out walk to give Livingston two runners on. Cesar Avila delivered the two-out single to right, but Mountain House’s Nick Aguilera came up throwing and fired the ball to the plate to throw out Chance trying to score. The throw was up the line, but Mustangs catcher David Montesino was able to apply the tag on Chance.

“We had to take some chances we wouldn’t normally do,” Winton said. “It was a close play at the plate, but he tagged him.”

While the offense was stuck in neutral, Livingston left-hander Jose Torres did his part to keep the Wolves in the game.

Torres had made just two appearances for Livingston this season, but he gave the Wolves four solid innings.

The Mustangs got to him for two runs in the third inning with a two-out rally. Hunter Perugi doubled with two outs and Josh Grande singled to left that scooted past Chance in the outfield to allow Perugi to score. Julian Sainz followed with a double to place Grande to give the Mustangs a 2-0 lead.

Mountain House broke open the game with three runs in the fifth inning. The Mustangs scored the three runs without getting a base hit. Two Livingston errors, three walks and a fielder’s choice that resulted in zero outs helped Mountain House flood the base baths and move runners around.

Torres walked the first two hitters of the inning and was replaced by Raymond Padron. Sainz then hit a ground ball to Omar Aguilar at third base. Aguilar tried to get the runner at second, but Grande beat the throw and the Mustangs had the bases loaded.

An error and a walk helped Mountain House score the first two runs of the inning. A groundout allowed the third run to score to extend the lead to 5-0.

Winton was happy with the job Torres and Padron did.

“I’m really proud of the way they threw,” Winton said. “Neither had thrown a whole lot, but they’ve stayed ready to pitch. They gave us every chance to win.”

The Wolves finished the tournament 2-2 after splitting a doubleheader on Wednesday with a 13-5 loss to Saint Joseph Notre Dame of Alameda and a 13-3 win over Elliot Christian of Lodi.

“We saw some good things in the tournament,” Winton said. “This tournament was kind of a microcosm of our season. We’d do two really good things and then one bad one. Then we’d do one good thing and a bad thing. We just need to clean up the bad ones and focus on the good things.”

Livingston’s Avila was named to the all-tournament team.

Merrill West 8, Atwater 1 in Atwater – The Falcons finished the tournament 1-3 with a loss to West. Cristian Curiel doubled and scored in the first inning for the Falcons.

Atwater did vote for Javier Cardenas for the Larry Silva Award, which is given to the most inspirational player during the tournament.

Softball

Dos Palos 20, Tranquillity 1 in Dos Palos – The Broncos (18-2-1 overall, 3-0 West Sierra League) extended their winning streak to 16 games with a home win. Janessa Jasso struck out 12 and pitched a one-hitter in a game that was stopped after five innings. Jasso also went 4-for-4 at the plate with two doubles and two RBIs.

Teya Vincent added three hits, including two triples and four RBIs.

This story was originally published April 20, 2017 at 7:53 PM with the headline "Livingston bats go silent against Mountain House."