July 3, 2018
San Luis Obispo, CA
Mark Tindall (Trinity), Wyatt Kelley (New Mexico St) and
Joey Steele (USF) pitched a combined six innings of scoreless relief and
John Thomas (USC) had a pair of two-out run-scoring hits to lead the Arroyo Seco Saints to a 5-2 win over the San Luis Obispo Blues tonight at Sinsheimer Park. Tindall was the pitching star tonight for the Saints, coming into the game to start the fourth inning in relief of starter
Colin King (Regis), who allowed both of the Blues' runs in the first inning before settling in and retiring seven of the next eight batters he faced. Tindall picked up where King let off and, with the help of a groundball double-play, retired the side in his first three innings and would have done the same in the last except for an error. Allowing only the one hit, a single by
Auston Chastain (Fresno St), the runner who was erased in the double-play, Tindall struck out the last batter he faced before turning the pitching duties over to Kelley, who despite surrendering a leadoff single to
Dane Stankiewicz (Grand Canyon) in the eighth inning, retired the next three batters in order. Steele then came into the game to pitch the ninth inning and, like Kelley before him, allowed the leadoff hitter to reach base, this time a double by
Slade Heggen (Gonzaga), and like Kelley, retired the next three batters in order, the last two via strikeouts, to close out the Saints win. All the scoring in tonight's game came in the early innings. Both teams scored twice in very similar fashion in the first inning, with
Cameron Briggs (UC Davis) and
Drew Cowley (Cal Poly Pomona) leading off the game with consecutive singles for Arroyo Seco, Briggs scoring on a sacrifice fly and Cowley scoring on Thomas's first two-out RBI-hit, a single, and the Blues leadoff hitters,
Jay Charleston (Tennessee) and Chastain both hitting singles too and scoring in the same way, Charleston scoring on a sacrifice fly and Chastain scoring on a Heggen RBI-single. The Saints took the lead for good in the third inning scoring three runs on an RBI-single by
Cooper Williams (New Mexico St), a run scoring groundout and a two-out RBI-double by Thomas. San Luis relief pitchers
Gabe Constantine, who came into the game to get the last out of the fourth inning in relief of starter
Cole Tucker, and
Clark Eder (San Diego St), were as stingy a relief staff as the Saints, allowing no runs over the final five-plus innings, with Tucker striking out five and retiring the last ten batters he faced, and Elder pitching around two no-out walks and an error in the ninth inning, retiring three batters in a row with the bases loaded.
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Elsewhere in the CCL today:
Compton, CA
Cade Smith (Hawaii) struck out six over six innings of one-run pitching and
Omar Ortiz (Cochise College) hit an RBI-triple and an RBI-double to lead the Southern California Catch to an 8-1 win over the Academy Barons tonight at the MLB Urban Youth Academy. Smith, the beneficiary of three first inning runs plated by his offense when
Anj Bourgeois (Biola) and
David Martinez (Austin Peay) doubled to leadoff the game, Ortiz hit his run-scoring triple and
Skyler De Los Reyes (UC Riverside) hit an RBI-single, was in command throughout his six-inning stint. Allowing only four baserunners in his first five innings, two via singles, one on a walk and one on a reached-by-error, he retired 16 of the first 20 batters he faced. The only blemish on Smith's outing came with two outs in the sixth inning when
Hunter Lewis (Indiana State) doubled and scored on a
Christian Lucio (Eastern Kentucky) single. That would be the only run of the game for the Barons as
Brendan Argomaniz (Orange Coast JC),
Tyler McKee and
Connor Mushinski (Weatherford) each pitched a scoreless, hitless inning to close out the win. Ortiz doubled in
Grant Robbins (UNLV), who hit a leadoff single, in the fourth, and
Jake Boone (Princeton), Bourgeois and Robbins hit RBI-singles in the sixth to account for the rest of the Catch runs.
Kris Keach (Cal State LA) pitched two innings with four strikeouts in relief of
Ryan Zapata (MS JC), who notched two strikeouts in his one inning of relief of starter
Anthony Nettles (Clark), to highlight the Academy pitching.
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