June 28, 2017 Auburn, CA Harrison Moore hit a pair of home runs and Kevin Stone (Harvard) pitched six shutout innings to lead the Neptune Beach Pearl to a 5-3 win over the Auburn Wildcats tonight at James Field. Hitting in the leadoff position, Moore led off the game with a solo shot and did the same to lead off the third inning to give the Pearl the early lead, a lead that Stone made stick by retiring 15 of the first 16 hitters he faced and 18 of 21 overall, recording six strikeouts and allowing only two hits. Neptune Beach added a run in the fourth inning on an RBI-groundout by Jake Chappell (Oklahoma St), and two in the eight on a run-scoring single by Kai Moody (Cabrillo JC) and a Chappell sacrifice fly, before Auburn came roaring back when Stone was lifted for a reliever. The Wildcats scored three times in the eighth inning on a two-out, bases load three-run double by Kale Leach, and once more in the ninth when Jacob Booker (Air Force) doubled and later scored on a groundout, but the Wildcats fell short of tying the game. Zach Miller (West Virginia) singled twice and was driven home twice by Chappell to also highlight the Pearl’s performance. Manuel Velasquez started on the mound for Auburn and struck out six in six innings of work, suffering the loss. Click here for recaps of this game Elsewhere in the CCL today: San Luis Obispo, CA Three pitchers combined for 13 strikeouts and Price Visintainer (Ala-Birmingham) drove in the tying and go-ahead runs with the second of his three hits as the San Luis Obispo Blues beat the Santa Barbara Foresters 3-2 tonight at Sinsheimer Park. Bobby Ay (Cal Poly) started on the mound for the Blues and struck out six in five and two-thirds innings, Jake Swiech (San Jose St), the first reliever in, struck out four in two and one-third innings, and Austin Isenhart (New Mexico) struck out three in his one inning of work in the ninth. All three pitchers used the strikeout to escape run-scoring situations relatively unscathed, none more so than Isenhart who, although striking out the first two batters he faced in a one-run game to start the ninth inning, gave up a single and a walk to put the tying and go-ahead runners on board. But, as the storyline of the game proved out, Isenhart struck out the last batter to close out the win. The pitching on the Santa Barbara side was maybe even slightly more dominant than San Luis Obispo as Evan Lee (Arkansas), Nathan Wiles (Oklahoma) and Garrett Gayle (Rice) combined to record 11 strikeouts in eight innings, allowing fewer hits and few walks than their counterparts, but were undone by Visintainer’s single in the third inning that score two unearned runs and proved to be the difference in the game. Click here for recaps of this game Pasadena, CA Jumpei Akanuma (Lee University) retired the first 15 batters in order and the Arroyo Seco Saints jumped out to a 7-0 lead tonight in their game against the Long Beach Legends, but it took two runs in the eighth inning, including a home run by Brendan Krob (Evansville), to hold off a late charge by Long Beach to secure an 9-8 win tonight at Jackie Robinson Stadium. Akanuma was nearly perfect for five innings. The one hitter he allowed on base, Trevor Casanova (Northridge), singled to lead off the fourth inning but was erased in an inning-ending double play. Pitching with a comfortable 7-0 lead, Akanuma gave some ground in the sixth inning when Jake Sahagian (Sonoma St) led off with a solo home run and Luke DeVenney singled after one out, but he retired the next two batters in the sixth and then three in a row in the seventh, two on strike outs, before Long Beach finally got his number in the eighth. The Legends scored four times on four hits, including an RBI-double by Michael Stefanic (Wesmont), to chase Akanuma, still holding a 7-4 lead with one out left in the inning, but Quint Robinson (Tennessee) struck out the only batter he faced to end the threat. On offense, the Saints scored in the first, third and fifth innings on RBI-singles by Brett Adams, Alex Briggs (LIU Brooklyn), Josh Magee (Faulkner) and Corey Harrell (Graceland) to post the 7-0 lead and, when Long Beach closed the gap to 7-4, Krob came through with an important insurance run, because the Legends weren’t quite done. They scored three more times in the ninth inning on an RBI-single by Corey Treyes (Coppin St) and a two-out bases-loaded two-run single by Stefanic, but came up one run short, as Josh Little (NC Central) came into the game to get the last out on a groundout to earn the save. Click here for recaps of this game Fairfield, CA The Walnut Creek Crawdads broke open a tight, evenly-matched game by scoring three times each in the seventh and ninth innings to beat the Rockville Rock Hounds 10-4 today at Yarborough Stadium. The Crawdads put four consecutive batters on base on two singles and two walks, took advantage of a couple of wild pitches to score in the seventh inning, and then, in the ninth, used a double by Jake Allen (Harvard), run-scoring singles by Grant Chapman (Los Medanos JC) and John Ballard (Colorado Mesa) and one more run-scoring wild pitch to put the game away. Connor Caspersen and Nick Simmons (Diablo Valley JC) each had three singles and an RBI to lead Walnut Creek, Brandt Frazier (Rice) had two hits, including a three-run home run in the fifth inning to lead the Rockville offense, and Chris Allen (College of Marin) struck out seven batters in four-plus innings of work, but allowed four runs on eight hits to suffer the loss. Click here for recaps of this game La Mirada, CA Solomon Bates (USC) hit a three-run home run, Angel Mora hit a two-run version and Tyler Tungate (Faulkner) notched seven strikeouts in four innings of relief to lead the Academy Barons to an 8-4 win over the Southern California Catch today at Biola University. Mora got the scoring going for the Barons, hitting his homer with one out in the top of the first inning and, after the Catch scored one in their half of the first on an RBI-single by Steven Garrett (Azusa Pacific) and tied the score in the fourth on a double by Evan Sandmann (Dallas Baptist) and a run-scoring single by Omar Ortiz (Pacific), Bates put the Academy up for good with his three-run shot. Bates added an RBI-single in the seventh to finish with a game-high four RBI, and scored the final run of the game on a single by Hunter Allen (Alabama St). Bates, Mora and Sandmann each had three hits to share game-high honors in that category. The ten-run performance by the Barons was in spite of the 15 strikeouts Zac Whittaker (Fresno CC), Matthew Wade (SE Missouri St) and Tucker Thomason (Fresno CC) compiled combined. Click here for recaps of this game Ventura, CA The Orange County Riptide beat the Ventura Halos 11-3 today at Ventura College. Details of this game were not available at post time.