June 24, 2017 Oakland, CA Alex Baeza (Hawaii) homered and doubled twice and Ben Skinner (Harvard) drove in three runs on a pair of doubles to lead the Walnut Creek Crawdads to a 9-3 win over the Rockville Rock Hounds tonight at Laney College. The Crawdads roughed up Rock Hounds starting pitcher Rylan Haney for eleven hits and eight runs in his six innings of work and, although Baeza and Skinner produced most of the run production, David Langer (Chabot) started the scoring with an RBI-triple in the second, Josh Ballard (Colorado Mesa) hit a solo home run in the sixth and both Grant Chapman (Los Medanos) and Daylen Calicdan (Hawaii) added run-scoring singles. Walnut Creek’s starting pitcher McGrane Pledger (Laney) went seven innings, allowing two runs while scattering eight hits, two each by Grant St. Martin (Sonoma St) and Jack Pridy, to earn the win. Click here for recaps of this game Elsewhere in the CCL today: Santa Barbara, CA The Conejo Oaks scored three times in the eighth inning to turn a 4-2 deficit into a 5-4 advantage, scored an insurance run in the ninth and relief pitchers Evan McMillin (UC Irvine) and Robby Medel (Arizona) punched out five batters in two innings to close out a 6-4 win over the Santa Barbara Foresters tonight at Pershing Park. Brandon Lewis (LA Pierce) tied the game in the eighth inning for the Oaks with an RBI-double and scored the go-ahead run when Codi Santana (Hawaii-Pacific) drove him in with a single. Once Conejo got the lead it was up to McMillin and Medel to close out the win. McMillin struck out the first two batters he faced in the bottom of the eighth inning and, after allowing a walk and a base hit, got the third out on a ground ball to hold the lead. Medel was a bit more dominant in his inning of work. He struck out three to earn the save. Santa Barbara had posted their 4-2 lead early, scoring an unearned run in the first inning, another in the second and two in the third on a two-run single by Evan Lee (Arkansas). Foresters’ starting pitcher Daniel Vasquez (Tennessee) had six strikeouts in six innings of work but did allow two Oaks runs in the second inning, one on an RBI-double by Santana and another on a Juan Gonzalez (Oklahoma Baptist) single. Click here for recaps of this game Irvine, CA David Miranda (Florida Atlantic) hit a grand slam and three pitchers combined for 14 strikeouts as the Orange County Riptide beat the Southern California Catch 6-1 today at Concordia University. Miranda’s home run was the big hit in the Riptide’s five-run sixth inning and was setup after Orange County loaded the bases and scored one run on three walks and a single. Up until that point, the game had been a close one. The Catch had posted a 1-0 lead in their first at bat when Mitchell Bumann (Hawaii-Pacific) doubled and scored on an Evan Sandmann (Dallas Baptist) sacrifice fly. Southern California’s starting pitcher Bailey Martin (Miami) held tight to that lead, retiring the Riptide in order for three innings before issuing two walks in the fourth and pitching around them, and another walk in the fifth and pitching around that one too. Martin then issued two more walks to open the sixth inning before being relieved and, three batters later, Miranda finally capitalized for the Riptide. Hayden Shenefield, Timothy Holdgrafer and Braxton Smith (Louisiana Tech) were in total command on the mound for Orange County. After surrendering the one run in the first, Shenefield retired the next 13 hitters he faced, five of them on strikeouts. Holdgrafer was just as relentless, retiring nine of the ten batters he faced, the exception being a double by Shay Whitcomb (UCSD) to lead off the eighth inning, and recorded six strikeouts. And Smith was the same, striking out three in the ninth inning to close out the win. Click here for recaps of this game Compton, CA The Arroyo Seco Saints scored eight unanswered runs to start the first game of a doubleheader against the Academy Barons today at the MLB Urban Youth Academy, two on a two-out triple by Dustin Krob (Dayton) in the second inning and three on a home run by Tyler Durna (UCSD) in the fouth, en route to a 9-4 victory. Krob, who also singled in the first inning and hit a second triple in the sixth, scored three times in the game, and Durna added a RBI-ground out to finish with a game-high four RBI. The Barons flipped the tables on the Saints in the second game, however, scoring eleven times on twelve hits to win the second half of the doubleheader 11-4. Javier Garcia (Compton JC) led off the bottom of the first inning with a solo home run, Joseph Argumedo (Lynn) drove in three runs on a double and a ground out and Roosevelt Bates (USC) had two singles and two RBI to lead the Academy offense. Long Beach, CA Jake Scott (Houston Baptist) hit a bases-clearing three-run double in the fourth inning and three Long Beach Legends pitchers stranded 14 baserunners to lead the Legends to a 6-2 victory over the San Luis Obispo Blues today at Long Beach City College. Scott’s double, the fourth consecutive hit Long Beach put together to open the fourth inning, followed an RBI-single by Trevor Steinman (Chico St) in the third which plated Robert Barham (Long Beach CC) who had doubled, to put the score at 4-0. The four-run lead was just the cushion the Long Beach pitchers needed as San Luis Obispo put runners on base in all but one inning. Legends’ starting pitcher John Szczesny (Azusa Pacific) pitched around seven hits to allow only one run, on a Price Visintainer (Ala-Birmingham) RBI-single in the fifth, and Jacob Alcorn and Harrison Smith (Oral Roberts) stranded six runners in their three innings of relief to secure the win. Michael Stefanic (Westmont) doubled and tripled to highlight the Long Beach performance. Click here for recaps of this game Healdsburg, CA Kale Leach came to bat with two outs in the ninth inning today with two runners in scoring position and couldn’t have known his at bat would determine the outcome of the game. As it turned out, with the 6-3 score comfortably in favor of the Auburn Wildcats, Leach’s ensuing two-out, two-run single was all the difference. The two runs increased Auburn’s lead to 8-3, just enough cushion as the Healdsburg Prune Packers scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth, three of them on a home run by Cameron Warren (Texas Tech), but the Packers fell one run short and Auburn held on for an 8-7 win today at Recreation Park. It was just that kind of a topsy-turvy game, with both teams trading runs early and, when Auburn would start to pull away, Healdsburg would come back. Sam Curtis (William Jessup) had the other big hit for Auburn, a two-run single in the sixth, and Grant Little (Texas Tech) matched Warren with a game-high three RBI on two singles and a groundout to lead Healdsburg. Click here for recaps of this game