July 5, 2017 Oakland, CA James Free II (Pacific) and Lucas Halstead (Pacific) hit a pair of solo home runs each, going back-to-back with the tying and winning run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Neptune Beach Pearl a dramatic walk-off win over their North Division rival Healdsburg Prune Packers 6-5 today at Laney College. The back-to-back game changers were all the more dramatic because Healdsburg had scored four runs in their half of the ninth inning on only one hit, an RBI-double by Landon Etzel (Houston), to take a 5-4 lead. Trailing 4-1 going into the ninth, Sawyer Pittman (San Jose St) was hit by a pitch to put the leadoff hitter aboard. Etzel’s double then advanced Pittman to third, a sacrifice fly drove in Pittman, Esteban Martinez walked and he and Etzel scored when Bryce Nagata (Sonoma St) got aboard on a three-base error, and then Nagata scored on another sacrifice fly by Grant Little (Texas Tech) with what looked like would be the game-winning run for Healdsburg and a heart-breaking loss for Neptune Beach. Both teams have been trading places atop the CCL Standings as of late and so, when the first two batters in the bottom of the ninth inning were put out, it looked like Healdsburg would leapfrog the Pearl back into first place. But then Free hit a home run to tie the game, Halstead hit another and the game and the first place standing went to Neptune Beach in walk-off fashion. Halstead’s first home run to lead off the second inning opened the scoring for the Pearl and, after the Packers tied the score at 1-1 in the fifth when Reyes Fuentes (Houston) singled and scored on a Little two-out RBI, Neptune Beach again took the lead when Free hit his first home run to lead off the sixth. Zachary Miller (West Virginia) added an RBI-single in the sixth inning and Halstead singled home another run in the seventh to give Neptune Beach a 4-1 lead that would last until the ninth inning drama unfolded. Kevin Stone (Harvard) started on the mound for the Pearl, throwing seven innings of one-run ball with four strikeouts, and Alec Rennard (Michigan) started for Healdsburg, recording eight strikeouts in five innings, but neither figured in the decision. Click here for recaps of this game Elsewhere around the CCL today: Thousand Oaks, CA Evan Lee (Arkansas) threw six innings of shutout ball and the Santa Barbara Foresters scored eleven unanswered runs on their way to an 11-1 win over the Conejo Oaks today at Sparky Anderson Field. Lee, a true two-way baseball player who is in the top ten of the CCL leading hitters and was selected last night to represent the Foresters in the CCL All-Star game next week as an outfielder, struck out eight in his six-inning start today and allowed only five baserunners (three hits and two walks). And while Lee, who is also now the league leader in pitching with a 0.00 ERA in 15 total innings, was posting zeros on the scoreboard, the Foresters offense was posting crooked numbers. Santa Barbara scored four in one inning, three in another and two twice, collecting 15 hits as a team, to lead throughout. Zach Humphreys (TCU) started the scoring for the Foresters with an RBI-single in the second, followed by a sacrifice fly by Jimmy Galusky (West Virgina). David Clawson (BYU) hit a two-run home run in the third inning to make the score 4-0, Chandler Bengston (Columbia) hit a two-run single and Humphreys drove in another run with a single in the fifth to make it 7-0, Joey Fiske (St. Mary’s) hit a bases-loaded, two-out triple in the seventh and was driven in by the next batter, Hank LoForte (Cal St Fullerton), to make the score 11-0. The only blemish to the Foresters’ pitching line came in the ninth inning when the Oaks' Grant Mayeaux (San Diego St) got on base on a two-out error and scored on a Jordan McFarland (Arkansas) single. Fiske led all hitters with his three RBI and Humphreys and LoForte each finished with a game-high three hits. Max Weinstein (Cal Lutheran) doubled and singled, and Zayne Willems (Texas Tech) singled twice to highlight the Oaks. Conejo used seven pitchers in today’s game and the performance that stood out was Ty Harpenau (Texas Tech) who struck out the side in his only inning of work in the eighth. Click here for recaps of this game Long Beach, CA David Miranda (Florida Atlantic) hit a two-out, two-run triple in the first inning in what would prove to be the winning run as the Orange County Riptide beat the Long Beach Legends 4-1 today at Long Beach City College. The runs Miranda generated upped his league-leading total to 23 and gave Jordan Dosey, (UVA), Hunter Bigge (Harvard), Will Tomlinson (Brown) and Seth Jordan (Texas St), the four pitchers to see action on the mound today for the Riptide, all the run support they would need. In relief of Dosey, who started and went three innings, Bigge, Tomlinson and Jordan were close to perfect. Bigge, who relieved Dosey with no outs in the fourth after a run scored on the second double of the game for Daniel Zimmerman (Michigan), and a walk loaded the bases, struck out the first batter he faced and then induced an inning-ending double play to avoid further damage. He then retired six of the next eight batters, earning the win before turning pitching duties over to Tomlinson, who retired three in a row, and Jordan, who retired six in a row to close out the win and earn the save. Click here for recaps of this game San Luis Obispo, CA Blake Burton (Washington) hit a two-run double as part of the Arroyo Seco Saints four-runs scored before an out was recorded in the first inning, and Burton would go on to have a five-for-five night at the plate, but Justin Beck (San Jose St) would hit a couple of run-scoring doubles of his own as the San Luis Obispo Blues came back from the early deficit to beat the Saints 6-5. Click here for recaps of this game Oakland, CA Sam Curtis (William Jessup) had four RBI and four singles, Dave Campbell (San Lose St) drove in five on a two-run double and three run-producing outs, and Nate Verlin drove in three more runs to lead the Auburn Wildcats to a 16-hit, 17-9 victory over the Walnut Creek Crawdads early today at Laney College. Click here for recaps of this game Ventura, CA Omar Ortiz (Pacific) hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning to give the Southern California Catch a 2-1 lead, Michael Tillman tied it 2-2 in the bottom half of the inning for the Venutra Halos with a run-scoring double, and then the Catch scored seven times during their eighth and ninth at bats on four doubles and two singles to win going away 9-2 today at Ventura College. Chris Vargas (UC Irvine), Chad Boudreaux (East Texas Baptist), Tallon Thomason (Fresno CC) and Matt Wade (SE Missouri St) combined for nine strikeouts and only one earned run in leading the Catch from the mound. Dalton Duarte (Dominguez Hills) opened the scoring with a solo home run in the fourth inning for Ventura. Click here for recaps of this game