July 21, 2016 Long Beach, CA Cody Den Beste (Prairie View A&M) had an RBI-double in the second inning, a two-run double in the seventh, and Martin Teague (Hope Int) hit a two-run home run in the third as the Academy Barons beat the Long Beach Legends 7-4 today at Long Beach City College. Today's win, the third in as many days against the Legends, improves the Barons' league record to a CCL-best 21-7 and, with seven games to go in the regular season, the Barons lead against the three other teams in the CCL South Division is now eight games or more, meaning the Academy has clinched the division title and have earned an automatic berth to the CCL playoffs July 29-31. Adonis Morrison had two hits and an RBI tonight to join Den Beste and Teague in leading the Barons offense. John Montgomery (Eastern Michigan) hit a two-run single in the fifth inning, increasing his season's RBI total to 29, two behind Teague's CCL-best 31, and Paul Estrada (Utah Valley St) had two hits and two RBI to lead Long Beach tonight. With the loss, the Legends fall to 13-19. See the boxscore/recap here. Also in the CCL today: Santa Barbara, CA Zach Esquivel (Rice) threw six scoreless innings, striking out six, and Hunter Williams (Tulane) had a pair of RBI-doubles as the Santa Barbara Foresters beat the Conejo Oaks 5-1 today at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium. The win improves Santa Barbara's record in the CCL to 18-10, three and a half games better than the Oaks and the San Luis Obispo Blues in the race for the CCL Central Division title and an automatic berth to the CCL playoffs July 29-31. With five games left in the regular season, the magic number for the Foresters to clinch a spot in the playoffs is now two. Matt Henderson (Florida St) had a two-run double in the third inning, and Brett Boswell (Texas) had an RBI-single to join Williams in leading the Foresters offense. Chad Bible (San Diego St) and Dallas Tessar (Washington) each tripled in today's game, and Kyle Sanchez (Cal) doubled and had the only RBI for Conejo. With the loss, the Oaks fall to 16-15 and are tied with San Luis Obispo and Healdsburg, both idle in league today, for the wildcard berth in the playoffs. See the boxscore/recap here. Palo Alto, CA The Neptune Beach Pearl only scored in three innings in their matchup with the Menlo Park Legends today at Baylands Park, but when they did score they scored big. With a five-run sixth inning and a four-run ninth, the Pearl still needed a three-run eleventh to settle a 12-9 win over the Legends. Andrew Bryniarski (Regis) figured prominently in each of the Pearl's big innings, hitting a bases loaded three-run double in the sixth inning, a two-run double in the ninth and a solo home run in the eleventh. Renae Martinez (Oklahoma) homered right before Bryniarski in the eleventh to provide what would be the winning run, but Bryniarski's six RBI was the story of the game. On the other side of the diamond for Menlo Park, Chandler Bengston (Columbia) matched up with Bryniarski's performance in almost every degree. Bengston forced a run home with a walk in the first inning, had a solo home run in the fourth, an RBI-double in the sixth and a bases-clearing three-run double in the seventh to match Bryniarski with six RBI for the game. Noah Gotsis (Regis) started on the mound for Neptune Beach today, striking out six in six innings, and reliever Blake Peters (UC Davis) had four strikeouts in the last two and a third innings to pick up the win. Ryan Lefner (Saint Louis) had six strikeouts in three-plus innings of relief for Menlo Park, but allowed seven runs to suffer the loss. Today's win improved Neptune Beach's record in CCL play to 15-8, second best in the CCL, and increased their lead in the CCL North Division to three over the Healdsburg Prune Packers, who were idle in CCL play today. With three league games remaining, the magic number for the Pearl to clinch a playoff berth is now one. With the loss, Menlo Park falls to 11-11, three and a half games behind the Pearl but only a half-game back of three other teams for the wildcard berth in the playoffs. See the boxscore/recap here. Irvine, CA Tommy Bell (Cal Baptist) had five RBI on five hits, including his fifth home run of the summer, and Dillon Kelley (Chico St) had six RBI on three hits, including a pair of doubles, as the Orange County Riptide beat the Southern California Catch in a slugfest today at Biola University 20-11. The Riptide finished the game with 20 hits and had four hitters with three or more hits in the game. They had seven extra-base hits, had five innings when they scored three or more runs and posted an 11-0 lead after three and a half innings. Chase Goldwater (Mississippi St) and Jake Hazard (UC Irvine) each had three hits and two RBI to join with Bell and Kelley in leading the Orange County onslaught. Josh Barrick (Liberty U) hit a three-run home run in the third inning, and Josh Rojas (Hawaii), Robert Bultena (Orange Coast College) and Jacob Hathaway (USF) each had three hits to lead the Catch. With today's result, Orange County improved its record in CCL play to 13-17, while the Catch fell to 14-16. See the boxscore/recap here.