June 17, 2018 Thousand Oaks, CA Dylan Francis (Cal Poly Pomona) notched eight strikeouts over five innings and RBI-singles by four hitters in the fifth inning led the Conejo Oaks to a 9-1 victory over the Academy Barons today at Sparky Anderson Field. Francis scattered three hits over his five-inning start, two of which plated the only run of the game for the Barons in the first inning, a one-out single by Trent Anderson (CSU Bakersfield) and a two-out RBI-double by Garrett Ouellette (CSU Bakersfield). From there Francis got stronger as his outing progressed, striking out one in the second inning with a runner in scoring position, two more in the third and striking out the last four batters he faced over the course of the fourth and fifth innings. After the Oaks took advantage of a hit batsmen, a walk and two Academy errors to score twice and take the lead in the second inning, Conejo scored five times in the fifth inning to take command of the game when Tyler Ryan (Pacific), Michael Spears (Ole Miss), Michael Tillman (Cal St LA) and Sam Shaikin (Valparaiso) all came through with RBI-singles. The Oaks bullpen took command of the game from that point forward as John Vergara, Eric Ma (Whitman College), Nick Rincover (Pierce College) and Gerry Ramirez (Glendale JC) took their turn pitching a scoreless inning to close out the win, combining to allow only two hits and four total baserunners, two of which were caught stealing. The final two Oaks runs came when Bryce Vitt tripled with one out in the seventh inning, scoring on a sacrifice fly, and in the eighth when Brandon Lewis (UC Irvine) doubled, advanced to third on an error and scored on a wild pitch. Click here for recaps of this game Elsewhere around the CCL today: Santa Barbara, CA Ryan Cash (Oklahoma St) tripled and scored in the first inning, Michael Neustifier (Oklahoma State) singled and scored in the second, and a five-pitcher rotation made the two runs hold up as the Santa Barbara Foresters beat the San Luis Obispo Blues 3-1 today at Pershing Park. It was the second time in as many days the Foresters pitching staff thwarted the Blues offense. After six pitchers combined to no-hit San Luis Obispo last night, the five pitchers today were in more of a bend-but-not-break mode. After being retired in order for the first two innings by Santa Barbara starting pitcher Brett Standlee (Oklahoma State), the Blues started putting offensive pressure on the Foresters, putting runners into scoring position in six of the last seven innings. After Standlee retired the first seven batters he faced in order, Jay Charleston (Tennessee) singled in the third inning and scored when Auston Chastain (Fresno St) tripled with two outs. That would be the only run the Blues would muster off of Santa Barbara pitching in the two game set. Standlee, who would pitch five innings today, left two runners in scoring position in the fourth inning after Slade Heggen (Gonzaga) and Luc Lipcius (Tennessee) hit consecutive singles to lead off the inning and were sacrificed into scoring position, but Standlee struck out one and got a line-out to escape unscathed. Charleston led off the fifth inning with a another single and, after he was erased on a caught-stealing, Standlee induced two ground ball outs before turning the pitching duties over to the bullpen. As they had done last night, the Foresters relievers were nearly unhittable. Hunter Breault (Oregon) pitched two innings scoreless, allowing the only hit, a double by Brandon Frazier (Georgia Gwinnett) to lead off the seventh inning, the Blues would get the rest of the game. Jackson Wolf (West Virginia), the fourth Santa Barbara pitcher used in the game, faced the toughest situation, entering the game with two runners aboard via walks in the eighth inning and no outs, but he also escaped unscathed, inducing two infield pop-ups and striking out one. Chase Wallace (Tennessee) struck out two in a scoreless ninth inning of work to close out the win for Santa Barbara. The Foresters offense got the two runs they needed to win the game in the first and second innings, and added an insurance run in the seventh. Cash's one-out triple in the first led to the first run, Neustifier scored in the second after he singled and advanced station-to-station to third base on a walk and a Kameron Guangorena (Cal St Fullerton) single, and advanced to home on a two-out bases-loaded walk. Santa Barbara scored their third run when Guangorena singled again and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly. Click here for recaps of this game