Capuchino softball crumbles late in a loss to Live Oak in the Central Coast Section Division III semifinals Tuesday night in San Bruno

But the wheels fell off for Capuchino in the top of the sixth inning. Live Oak sent 16 batters to plate, hammered out eight hits and took advantage of three Mustangs’ errors as the Acorns scored 11 times to post a 12-3 win over the second-seeded Mustangs.

The end came suddenly — not only for Thomas but Capuchino’s season. Thomas had been, more or less, dominant through the first five innings. Thomas retired the first seven Acorns of the game, losing out on the perfect game in the third inning with a walk to Brooke Frausto and lost the no-hitter two batters later on an Eden Svoboda single.

But Thomas got out of the inning without any damage and when the Mustangs answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning, it looked like it would be enough.

But some cracks started to show in the fourth, as Live Oak’s Quinn Dana-Hulburg cracked a two-out double to the left-center field gap. She was the first Acorn to get into scoring position and she came home on a Adia Seider triple to the right-field corner.

But a groundout ended the inning and Thomas went on to get out of the fifth, as well, working around a hit batter to strike out two more to give her eight for the game.

But in the top of the sixth, Live Oak (13-8) finally got to Thomas. The first 10 batters of the inning all reached base before the Mustangs recorded an out. Twice Live Oak loaded the bases in the inning, and twice they were cleared. First, Live Oak pitcher Julianna Altamirano drilled a three-double into the right-center gap that turned the Acorns’ 3-2 deficit into a 5-3 advantage.

And the Acorns weren’t done. A walk and an error loaded the bases for Olivia Mixco, who smoked a triple to the right-field corner to clear the bases again to put the Acorns up 8-3.

That ended the night for Thomas, with Kiana Ngalaufe taking over. The Mustangs finally got an out at the plate, but Seider came through with her second RBI of the inning, and third of the game, to plate the final run of the inning for the Acorns as a 12-3 advantage.

It was a disappointing ending to a game that started with such promise for Capuchino (12-14). Thomas, who threw a perfect game earlier this year, developed into a dependable arm for the Mustangs as the season went along and she was on top of her game to start, getting five strikeouts in the first three innings.

The Capuchino offense, meanwhile, staked her to a quick lead as the Mustangs struck for their first run in the bottom of the second inning. With one out, Ngalaufe reached on error before moving around to third base on a pair of wild pitches. That brought Valeria Gomez to the plate, who worked the count full before delivering an RBI single to left to get the Mustangs on the scoreboard.

Capuchino extended its lead to 3-0 with two more runs in the third. Thomas, who also serves as the Mustangs’ leadoff hitter, led off the inning with the first of her two walks on the night and went to second on an Alana Koenig sacrifice bunt.

That brought up Brianna Lopiccolo, who hammered a 2-1 pitch to the right-center field gap to drive in Thomas and put the Mustangs up 2-0.

Lopiccolo went 3 for 4 with a triple, double and two RBIs.

Kaitlyn Staff, who was running for Lopiccolo, came around to score on a Ngalaufe to put the Mustangs up 3-0.

Capuchino, however, was held to just four hits over the final four innings as the Acorns rallied for the win.