LIVE OAK, CA (MPG) - The Live Oak girls’ softball team had a rough week as they lost the Series and got swept in a 9-5 series finale by the Winters Warriors on Friday, April 14.

The series sweep came at a crucial time for Live Oak as they are in the midst of trying to stay afloat in the Sacramento Valley League playoff hunt and now hold a 2-5 league record.

Lady Lions head coach Kevin Medeiros expressed to the Herald that his message to the team was to move past this and build off the past week. He added that Winters was a good matchup with his team, but a lot of errors, 10 total, got the best of the Lady Lions last Friday.

Live Oak (4-6, 2-5 SVL) jumped on the scoreboard first as junior outfielder, Sierra Swanson, singled in a run batted-in to give the Lady Lions an early lead in the game.

Live Oak sophomore pitcher, Izabella Pacheco, started the game on fire as she retired the first eight batters of the Winters lineup before giving up her first hit of the game. In the sixth inning, Pacheco gave up five hits and seven runs, but only two of the runs were earned.

The Lady Lions went up 2-0 in the third inning when the Warriors over threw a backpick attempt on Live Oak junior outfielder Aubrey Lopez at third.

The first two errors of the Lady Lions helped Winters tie up the game in the top of the fourth. Live Oak was able to get out of the jam, and end the inning when freshman infielder, Paige Medeiros, caught a line drive out at second base, quickly tossing the ball to first to double-up a runner that didn’t tag the bag correctly.

In the fifth inning, Winters broke open and took controll of the game with two hits and the Lady Lions committed three more errors to add to the five-run inning for the Warriors.

A crucial call was missed on a bang-bang play when the score was 3-2 with no outs and there was a backpick attempt from Live Oak sophomore catcher Alexa Medina to junior third baseman Olivia Nanez. The ball beat the Warriors runner by a landslide and the umpire said Nanez’s tag was late.

Kevin thought the tag was there as he argued his case, but ultimately the umpiring crew stayed with the original call.

Following the play, Winters took a 7-2 lead by the end of the inning. Kevin mentioned to the Herald that although it was a momentum shift in the game, you can’t hang your head on it and need to push through another door to get back in the game.

The Lady Lions fought on in the sixth inning as Nanez reached on an error after a hard hit ball by the Warriors shortstop and two scored to bring Live Oak within three. The Lady Lions weren’t able to make the comeback.

Kevin shared he told his team they’d have a chance to boost their confidence this week. Live Oak hosted Pierce on Tuesday and Oroville on Wednesday. He hoped these games would get them steamrolling through the rest of a competitive league schedule.