As the summer rages on, so does the CCL. The league wrapped up its sixth week of play and will now take a quick break for All-Star festivities. The break couldn’t come at a better time for some teams, while others will be rueing its existence and hoping that it doesn’t kill their momentum.
One of the teams that’ll be trying to carry their winning ways through the break is the Orange County Riptide. The team has had a nearly perfect July, fighting hard and beating the teams it’s supposed to beat, resulting in the biggest jump a team has had in the power rankings so far this year.
On the flip side, for teams like the Walnut Creek Crawdads and the Sonoma Stompers, the upcoming break represents an opportunity to reset as the charge for the playoffs continues. Both teams have shown great things at points this year, but will need to be more consistent to pose a real threat to some of the teams in the CCL South.
For teams at the top and bottom of the rankings, week six was more or less business as usual.
With all that being said, here are the latest CCL Power Rankings:
It’s been a couple of weeks since the Foresters have shown out-and-out dominance, but the team still keeps getting the job done, and there’s absolutely no reason to kick them out of the No. 1 spot in the power rankings.
Santa Barbara started the week off by splitting a home and away set against the San Luis Obispo Blues. Getting a win against the Blues was big, but not as big as getting a walk-off 7-6 win over the No. 2 Conejo Oaks on Friday, July 11. That win, more than any other win, helped the team stay in first place.
The Foresters carried that momentum through a win against the Academy Barons, but inexplicably lost to the CCL-affiliated San Diego Bombers — who are 5-11 in CCL play — to close out the week.
Despite the bad loss, the 3-2 week was still a successful one, and the victory over the Oaks was a major reason why. If the Foresters had lost that game, they would very likely have a downward arrow next to their name, but luckily for them, they were able to prevail in the end.
The Oaks are playing amazing baseball. The team is 7-3 since the start of July and was unfair competition to most of their opponents this week, winning four games and posting a +18 run differential in those wins.
They beat the Barons to start the week, dismantled the San Francisco Seagulls 16-6 and capped off the week by beating the Arroyo Seco Saints in a home-and-away set. Any time you can pick up four wins in a week it means you’re playing well. Unfortunately for the Oaks, as previously mentioned, they also dropped a game to the Foresters, losing in walk-off fashion.
The team improved from last week in the sense that they beat all the teams they’re supposed to beat, but they couldn’t get the big win to put them ahead of Santa Barbara in the power rankings and standings.
The Oaks have beaten the Foresters twice this year, but have come up short the last two times and trail the season series 3-2. It seems like they’ll have to flip the script on that in order to do it all and repeat as CCL Champions.
The Riptide are in the midst of a seven-game winning streak that stretches back to July 5, and a 9-1 stretch since the start of the month that includes a win over the Foresters. They were a team that seemed poised to move up the power rankings last week, but were jumped by a Blues team that went undefeated. Now, after an undefeated week of their own, and the inconsistencies from the other teams in this area of the rankings, the Riptide jump three spots to No. 3.
The Riptides’ five wins this week weren’t against extremely impressive opponents, but in sports, you have to beat the teams you’re supposed to beat, which isn’t something that every team at the north end of the power rankings has done. The team picked up wins against the Philippines Baseball Group, San Diego Waves and Bombers, all CCL-affiliates. They also picked up two wins against the Academy Barons.
Orange County will have to continue to prove itself against the tougher competition of its upcoming schedule. Still, no team in the CCL is as hot as the Riptide.
The Stompers’ season has been wild from the start and that isn’t stopping now. For the second week in a row, the team went 3-2, and for the second week in a row, it happened in strange fashion.
The Stompers fell to the Walnut Creek Crawdads twice in a home and away series. The Crawdads are a team that’s falling down the rankings as their good start to the season has faded away and the losses are starting to mount. Luckily, the Stompers picked up two wins against the Alameda Merchants, who have been an extremely good CCL-affiliated team this summer. The Stompers’ only other win was a high-scoring affair against the Menlo Park Legends, where they prevailed 17-13.
The Stompers week was far from bad, but with the Riptide playing such good baseball and the team losing two games to a team in a rut, they fall to No. 4.
The Blues flew into the No. 5 spot in the power rankings last week after a 5-0 week, which saw them beat the Saints and Crawdads. While this week wasn’t quite good enough to continue their rise up the power rankings, the Blues played good baseball and ended the week 3-2, holding their place.
The Blues, as previously mentioned, split a two-game series with the Foresters. Winning one game against the best team in the league was massive for the squad, not only because it continued to prove they can hang against the best, but also because they dropped a game to the Seagulls later in the week.
The loss to San Francisco was a cavernous low point on the week for San Luis Obispo, but the team bounced back strongly, winning the three-game set and outscoring San Francisco 13-1 in those two victories.
The Blues started the season extremely inconsistently, but since then have emerged as a winning team and a true threat in the CCL North. They’ve jumped the Crawdads in the power rankings, tied them in the standings, and sit 1.5 games back from the first-place Stompers.
The Crawdads’ sudden and steep fall down the power rankings continues after another losing week. A 1-3 week dropped them from No. 2 to No. 4 in the last power rankings, and a 2-3 week has dropped them all the way to No. 6 after the teams around them continued their winning ways.
As previously mentioned, the Crawdads were able to pick up two wins against the Stompers, but aside from that, the week didn’t go to plan. They suffered a frustrating, but understandable loss to the Merchants on Saturday, July 12, but their other two losses were a little more head-scratching.
Walnut Creek started and ended the week with two losses to the 13-17 Menlo Park Legends. Menlo Park controlled both of those games from start to end, and even if the final scores — 6-5 and 10-6 — didn’t necessarily show it. Surprisingly, that’s just how it’s gone when these two teams have met up this summer, as Walnut Creek is winless in four chances.
The Crawdads will face the Legends three more times this year and will need to figure out a way to beat them if they want to get back on track and resume their early-season form.
Two weeks ago, the Saints were 10-6 and one of the hottest teams in the CCL. Since then, they’ve cooled off considerably, going 2-8, with both wins coming this week.
The victories came against the Seagulls and the Bombers, the worst-ranked full-fledged CCL member and an affiliate team. They barely beat the Seagulls, too, allowing a seven-run eighth inning to make it a one-run game.
Two of the team’s losses were understandable; they played the Oaks twice and dropped both games. While they would’ve surely liked to have picked up at least one, those are losses you can live with if you beat the teams you’re supposed to beat. Unfortunately, before the Oaks series, the Saints were defeated by the Waves, 11-7.
The Saints need the All-Star break as bad as anyone else, and will try to use it as a tool to regroup and come back stronger than ever.
The Legends produced a winning week for the third time this season, but it’s just not enough to move up in the power rankings. The team has shown that it’s capable of good wins, but not sustained success.
As previously mentioned, they continued their winning ways against the Crawdads, outscoring the Walnut Creek team 16-11 in those two impressive victories. If they can continue their winning ways against a team that’s seemingly better than them, that’ll go a long way to help them finally move up the power rankings. Still, it’ll take more than just a few good wins.
The Legends beat the Merchants to account for their third win of the week, but fell to them once and fell to the Stompers as well. If the Legends want to be a serious threat in the CCL North, they’ll have to start beating teams of that caliber on a more consistent basis.
The Barons ended last week with a loss, and the negative momentum carried over into this week, where the team was held winless. The Barons are now 1-9 in their last 10 games and are at risk of falling to the No. 10 spot in the power rankings.
The losses weren’t pretty; The Barons’ offense only scored five runs all week and the pitching staff allowed 25 runs to cross the plate. They were beaten by one by the Oaks and Foresters, and twice by the rising Riptide. All of those teams are playing good baseball, and losing to them is understandable. However, you still need to be able to eke out wins over the course of the season, especially against teams you should beat, and the Barons couldn’t even do that, falling to the Bombers as well.
The Barons will host the CCL All-Star game at the MLB Urban Youth Academy in Compton, California, on Wednesday, July 16, at 7:00 p.m. They’ll hope — like so many other teams in the bottom half of the power rankings — that they can come out on the other side of the game better than before.
The Seagulls didn’t go winless like the Barons, but they didn’t do much better. As previously mentioned, the team picked up a victory over the Blues but then lost two to them. They also lost to the Saints and Oaks at the start of the week, giving them four losses.
The Seagulls’ first season as an official member of the CCL hasn’t gone to plan in any way, shape or form. Still, they’re playing hard, individual players are fighting to get better and they’ll try to play spoiler as the summer continues.
Affiliate teams aren’t included in the power rankings, but still impact the CCL.
The Alameda Merchants (15-11) are still far and away the most successful affiliate team. They had a busy week and went 3-3. The two San Diego teams, the Waves (4-6) and the Bombers (5-11), had .500 weeks with the Waves going 1-1 and the Bombers going 2-2. The Philippines Baseball Group (3-13) only played one game this week, which they lost. to secure its second and third wins of the season this week. PBG beat the Barons and Oaks once but fell to the Riptide and allowed the Oaks to get revenge with a victory for a .500 week.
Tune in next week to see how our Power Rankings change after the Showcase break!
The fireworks during the first week of July weren’t held to the night sky. California Collegiate League action raged on at ground level across the state and one of the wildest weeks of the season ensued.
The San Luis Obispo Blues are heating up with the summer weather and rattled off a five-game winning streak to jump up a couple of spots. At the top of the standings and rankings, the Santa Barbara Foresters did just enough to stay in first place, but the Conejo Oaks have positioned themselves right on their tail.
It wasn’t all sunshine for every team. The Walnut Creek Crawdads’ up-and-down season continued with a 1-3 week and the Arroyo Seco Saints lost five straight just as they seemed to be heating up. None of the teams at the bottom of the rankings did enough to jump up to a more respectable spot.
The week also saw the conclusion of the June 10 matchup between the Saints and the Foresters. The game resumed in the eighth inning and the Saints managed to hold on for a 12-11 victory.
Without further ado, here are the latest CCL Power Rankings
Not including the loss in the resumed game from June 10, the Foresters had a very respectable, but possibly not up to standard, 4-2 week.
Santa Barbara kicked off the week by beating the Orange County Riptide and following it up with a 4-2 victory over the Oaks, an important win not only for the power rankings but the standings as well. The team capped off the week with a walkoff victory over the Saints to finish a two-game sweep. In between those four wins, the team ran into struggles.
The Foresters dropped a game to the Riptide 7-3. Losses happen, even big losses to teams that you shouldn’t lose to, but the loss wasn’t the worst of the week for the Foresters. The next day, they dropped a game 3-0 to the Academy Barons, who finished the week with an 8-13 record. The loss was arguably the most embarrassing of the season for the CCL’s No. 1 team.
Despite that, they bounced back strong against the Saints and started the week off hot. They’ll need to continue to play well and beat the teams they need to beat next week to continue fending off second place.
The Oaks had far from a perfect week; as previously mentioned, they lost to the Foresters in their first game of the week. A win could’ve set them on a path to snatch the No. 1 spot in the rankings, but that loss, coupled with their Friday loss, limited how much the week could be considered a success.
On Friday, the Oaks lost to the CCL-affiliated Philippines Baseball Group, which entered the day with a 2-12 record. The loss came after a bounce-back win against the CCL-affiliated San Diego Bombers, and they bounced back from the PBG loss with another win against a different CCL-affiliated San Diego team: the San Diego Waves.
Conejo wrapped up its week by getting its revenge against PBG in an 8-1 victory, but the losses ruined their chance at the top spot, for this week at least.
The 3-2 week — combined with the Crawdads’ struggles — was still enough to jump them into second place and behind the Foresters, but in order to pass them, they’ll need to beat the teams they’re supposed to beat the first time around, not just the second.
The Stompers’ week was a rollercoaster; it started off with a win before two rough losses. The team would then rise again, capping the week off with two emphatic victories. In the end of it all, the Stompers were another team that jumped up one spot thanks to the killer combo of a 3-2 week and the Crawdads’ struggles.
Sonoma beat the Menlo Park Legends 2-0 before running into the extremely talented CCL-affiliated Alameda Merchants. The next loss would sting even more. The Stompers fell to the lowly San Francisco Seagulls 6-4.
The loss seemed to light a fire underneath the team. The offense exploded for 27 runs over the next two days and the pitching staff and defense only allowed four runs, beating the Merchants 9-2 and the Seagulls 18-2.
Losses happen in baseball; it’s all about how you bounce back. The Stompers not only bounced back strong, but also bounced ahead with an overall solid week.
The Crawdads, once again, had a week to forget. Instead of carrying the positive momentum from last week into a challenge for the No. 1 spot, an embarrassing 1-3 week drops them to the No. 4 spot.
Walnut Creek started the week off on the right foot by beating the Seagulls, but then dropped one to the Legends and two to the Blues. The two losses to San Luis Obispo stung the most.
After beating the Blues two times at home earlier in the summer, the Crawdads took a four-hour bus ride down Route 101 to get the favor returned to them. The Blues had the antidote for the Crawdads’ usually potent offense, holding the group scoreless for 16 straight innings and allowing just three runs in the second game of the series. Both the Blues and the Legends took advantage of the yo-yo that is the Crawdads’ bullpen, scoring 14 runs off the group. That helped skew the Crawdads’ run differential for the week to -5.
The Crawdads have shown time and time again that they’re capable of winning, and in some cases dominating. However, they’ve also demonstrated that they’re one of the most inconsistent teams in the CCL. In some ways, the fall was a long time coming. Still, that doesn’t mean the team can’t be counted out. If anything, their upcoming opponents should be expecting a strong bounce-back that could propel the Crawdads back to where they were a week ago.
This time last week, the Blues had fallen from the fifth spot to the seventh spot after a week in which they lost four games to the Foresters. Despite the Foresters being the No. 1 in the league, four losses was too much to overlook. The Blues needed to prove themselves to rise up the rankings again. It didn’t take long for that to happen.
The Blues went undefeated in the first week of July, racking up five wins. The first three came against a Saints team that was red hot, riding a three-game winning streak. The Blues won the first game by walking off the Saints 10-9, they then shut down the opposing offense in a 4-1 victory, and secured the sweep with a 9-5 win.
The winning didn’t stop there. As previously mentioned, the Blues completely tore apart the Crawdads to finish the week 5-0.
While I couldn’t quite justify putting them past the Crawdads due to Walnut Creek team coming into the week as the No. 2 team and the Blues the No. 7 team, the series did have a major impact on them being back-to-back in this week’s rankings. Winning is hard, and winning multiple games in a row is even harder, but if the Blues keep this up they’ll continue to climb in the right direction.
The Riptide had an overall very good week, but unfortunately for them, they weren’t able to move up the power rankings due to the Blues’ otherworldly week.
As previously mentioned, the Riptide lost their first game of the week to the Foresters, they also suffered an embarrassing loss to the Bombers, but apart from that, they were money. The team rattled off four wins, including a huge 7-3 win against the Foresters to get some revenge. They also beat the Bombers once, the Barons once and PBG once to round out a nice 4-2 week.
There seems to be something of a gap between the top five teams and the bottom five teams in the CCL, but if the Riptide can keep stacking weeks like this, that gap can disappear.
For the second week in a row, the Saints swapped places with the Blues. The team came into the week riding a three-game win streak, but allowed themselves to be the Blues’ launching pad back into the top half of the rankings, and things only got worse after that series.
The Saints finished off the week by dropping two games to the Foresters. If you ignore their win in the suspended June 10 game — which is credited to June 10 as that’s the day the game started — the Saints ended the week winless and with five losses.
The competition that the Saints faced wasn’t easy, but five losses are still five losses. Like many other teams, the Saints will try to find the right kind of consistency as July rages on.
The Legends’ season has been rather repetitive. Some good wins here and there but more losses than wins in the end. That trend continued to start July.
The Legends picked up two wins during the week, one against the Crawdads, 5-4, after a late surge. They also beat the Merchants in a high-scoring 11-8 affair. In the end, though, they lost four games.
The first loss was the previously mentioned 2-0 game against the Stompers. They then lost two games to the Merchants and one to the Seagulls, their third loss to the San Bruno-based team this season.
The Legends have shown that they can win on their day, but the team needs their day to come around more often.
The highlight of the Barons’ season occurred on Thursday, July 3. The MLB Academy team has had a season to forget, but on that day, they had a game to remember. The Compton-based squad traveled to Santa Barbara and shutout the No. 1 Foresters in a 3-0 win.
The victory was one of, if not the biggest, CCL upsets this season. Unfortunately for the Barons, it was the only win they had all week. Before the victory, they had dropped games to the Waves and PBG and, as previously mentioned, they lost to the Riptide as well.
Although the victory over the Foresters was a great moment, the team surely isn’t satisfied with their week — or season — overall.
All things considered, the Seagulls had a week to be proud of.
The team has struggled mightily, but they secured two big wins and had a .500 week to start July. The Seagulls lost to the Crawdads — the loss secured the season sweep for the Walnut Creek team — and the Stompers in blowout fashion, but also beat the Stompers once and the Legends once.
The season appears to be a lost one for the San Francisco team, but they can still win individual days, as shown by this week.
Affiliate teams aren’t included in the power rankings, but still impact the CCL.
The Alameda Merchants (14-7) have been the best affiliate team this season and kept the good vibes going with a 3-2 week. The Merchants picked up wins over the Legends and Stompers and fell to each of those teams once as well.
The two San Diego teams, the Bombers (3-9) and the Waves (3-5), played limited schedules this week. The Bombers split two games with the Riptide and lost to the Oaks. The Waves beat the Barons and lost to the Oaks as well.
The Philippines Baseball Group (3-12) was able to secure its second and third wins of the season this week. PBG beat the Barons and Oaks once but fell to the Riptide and allowed the Oaks to get revenge with a victory for a .500 week.
Tune in next week to see how our Power Rankings change after Week 6!
With the completion of the fourth week of CCL play and calendars waiting to be turned over to July, the season has reached its halfway point.
The Santa Barbara Foresters weathered a tumultuous week to remain the No. 1 team in the league at the halfway mark. With the seemingly once again red-hot Walnut Creek Crawdads right on their tail, they won’t want to risk a similar week in week five.
Elsewhere in the league, the Conejo Oaks got back into a rhythm, while the San Luis Obispo Blues went on a skid. The two teams jostled for positions in the middle of the pack with three other teams.
To see exactly where they all slot in, check out the latest CCL power rankings.
The Foresters continued their winning ways, albeit not at their usual rate. They went 3-2 on the week, doubling their loss total for the season — which really says more about how good they’ve been this season. Still, they have the most impressive record in the CCL, and the winning week did just enough to keep them in the No. 1 slot.
The Foresters faced the Blues four times during the week, and after dropping the first game on the road, they didn’t lose again. They outscored the Blues 25-18 across their meetings. The only other team the Foresters played was the Oaks for a one-off game. The Conejo team was able to beat the Foresters at home, 4-1. The loss hurt the Foresters, but their wins over the Blues are enough to warrant them staying first in the power rankings. They’ll want to be careful next week, though, with the Walnut Creek Crawdads playing good baseball.
Part of the reason that Santa Barbara struggled slightly was because of some pitching regression. The staff came into the week proudly owning a 2.78 ERA, but could only manage a 3.40 ERA on the week. The team also only scored 5.2 runs per game on average after coming into the week averaging 8.9.
The team is still great — 2.96 ERA and 7.8 runs per game on average for the season — but will need fewer hiccups to stay in first.
The Crawdads bounced back from a 2-4 week, going 5-1 to end the month of June. Another week like this one could see them jump back into the No.1 spot, the place they were in the first power ranking of the season.
Walnut Creek started the week off strong with two bounce-back victories over the Sonoma Stompers, the team that they lost to finish off their 2-4 week. Walnut Creek’s staff held the Stompers didn’t allow an earned run across those 18 innings, and extended the streak by shutting out the San Francisco Seagulls. The Crawdads would get two more wins against the Seagulls later in the week, but picked up their lone loss — a 10-5 payback smattering from the Stompers — in between.
While the pitching staff was still inconsistent at times, they got the job done, and then some, more often than not. The team now owns a respectable — for the CCL — 4.44 ERA that’s trending in the right direction. The offense also experienced some inconsistency, but overall bounced back, scoring 10 runs on two occasions.
The Crawdads still need to prove that they can be a consistent team, but another week like this one most likely sees them jump back to the No. 1 spot.
The Oaks were another team that bounced back strong after a disappointing week three of CCL play, and they did so, in part, by beating the No. 1 Foresters. While that was just one win, they recorded three other victories. The reigning CCL champions beat the Arroyo Seco Saints twice and split a series with the Orange County Riptide for their final win of the week and their lone loss.
The offense remained strong and consistent throughout the week, faltering only slightly in the team’s 11-3 loss to the Riptide. Conejo’s 4.55 ERA is probably higher than what the coaching staff would want, but with their strong offense, they’re able to stay in almost any game. The team will need to try to improve its pitching and consistency as the second month gets underway, but this team is a real threat to repeat.
The Stompers finished the week strong, no one can take that away from them and they’ll try to ride the momentum into the fifth week of CCL play, but their bad start, combined with Conejo’s great week, drops them one spot.
As previously mentioned, the Stompers fell to the Crawdads on back-to-back days to start the week. They were bad losses, but the team quickly flushed them. The Stompers got back in the win column against the Menlo Park Legends with a 5-1 win before beating the Crawdads and the Legends again.
Ultimately, Sonoma went 3-2 on the week, but their stumble, combined with the Oaks’ great week, drops them a spot. The team is still a threat as the season enters its second month, but, like many of the other teams at the top of the rankings, it needs to distinguish itself by being more consistent.
Last week, I called the Saints a team that arguably could’ve been higher than the No. 6 ranking I gave them. This week, they did just enough to actually make the jump.
Arroyo Seco went 3-2 on the week after putting an ugly start behind itself. As previously mentioned, the team lost two games to a charging Oaks squad. Arroyo Seco lost both games by three runs. The losses could’ve started a downward spiral, but the team showed its quality with three straight wins to end the week.
The Saints beat the Academy Barons twice and the CCL-affiliated San Diego Waves once. While those two teams represent some of the weaker competition that the Saints will play, the players don’t determine who they’re facing, and wins are still wins and the Saints won enough to jump them above falling competition.
The Riptide, quite frankly, didn’t have a great week. The team went 2-3 and fell to .500, yet the Riptide are the beneficiaries of another team’s misfortunes in the power rankings.
Orange County’s two wins this week came in dominant fashion. First, on Thursday, the team beat the Blues 8-1 and finished their week by beating the Oaks 11-3 after dropping one to them the day before. If you’re keeping track of what teams are yet to appear in the rankings, you’ll realize that the win over the Blues had significant implications.
While the Riptide’s wins were good, the losses were bad. A blowout at the hands of the Waves, followed by a loss to the Barons, ruined the Riptide’s chances of having an ultra-productive week. You need to beat the teams you’re supposed to beat, and the Riptide couldn’t this time around.
The Blues had a week to forget, or at least one that they’ll try to forget as soon as possible. They went 1-4 on the week, dropping below .500 and two places in the power rankings.
To be fair to the Blues, they faced a gauntlet to end the month of June. The team from San Luis Obispo faced the Foresters, the best team in the league, four times. That’s enough to make any team sweat. Still, you need to win in sports, even if your opposition is challenging. Unfortunately for the Blues, they couldn’t overcome the obstacle, losing three of the four games and getting blown out by the Riptide for good measure.
The biggest issue for the Blues was that they didn’t give themselves much breathing room heading into the week, and it cost them.
The Legends looked like they were going on a run at the start of the week after winning three straight games. Back-to-back six-run performances handed them wins against the Seagulls before blowing out the CCL-affiliated Alameda Merchants 13-0, which is no easy task. That’s where the good news for the Legends ends, though.
The Legends ended the week in the inverse of how it started: three straight losses. The team fell to Sonoma twice, getting outscored 18-7 across the two games. In between those two losses, they fell to the Seagulls 5-3.
Menlo Park has proven that it can string together wins, but it’s also prone to blowouts and bad stretches. The team will need to go on a good, consistent run to move up the power rankings.
The Barons had a pretty nice week, all things considered. They shut out the Ripide, a solid team, and took advantage of two games against the CCL-affiliated Philippines Baseball Group, winning both. If the Barons continue to have winning weeks, they could have a good chance of moving up the power rankings.
The two losses that the Barons collected were against the Saints. They were rather ugly defeats — 12-3 and 10-6 — but they came at the hands of a very solid team.
The Barons have struggled mightily this summer, but this week was a step in the right direction.
Bringing up the rear is the Seagulls, who had a rough week once again. Their lone victory came against the Legends after already falling to them twice. Aside from those losses, they fell to the Crawdads three times, and the combined score across the three games was gut-wrenching, 22-5.
San Francisco has shown little to no improvement throughout the summer, and it seems unlikely that something will change. However, July is a new month, and in sports, anything can happen.
Affiliate teams aren’t included in the power rankings, but still impact the CCL.
It wasn’t a great week for the affiliate teams. The Alameda Merchants — the affiliate team that has had the most productive season — only played one CCL game this week, that being their blowout loss to the Legends. While the loss only drops them to 10-5, the other affiliates’ escapades made their seasons go from bad to worse.
The San Diego Waves are now 2-4 after splitting their two games this week. They beat the Riptide and lost to the Saints. Still, they’re in a better spot than the 1-10 Philippines Baseball Group, which lost two games to the Barons. The San Diego Bombers didn’t have any CCL matchups this week, therefore staying at 2-7.
Tune in next week to see how our Power Rankings change after Week 5!
The third week of CCL play brought changes to the top of the power rankings, while no team in the bottom half of the league did enough to differentiate itself from the pack.
The Walnut Creek Crawdads lost their place as the No. 1 team in the league after a week to forget, allowing the still-hot Santa Barbara Foresters to take the top spot. The Sonoma Stompers and the Conejo Oaks also switched places as the former is on the rise and the latter needs to find its groove again.
There’s still plenty of baseball to be played throughout the summer, and teams are still finding their identity, but the next stretch of games can start to create real separation between teams. Everyone will need to be on top of their game to try to improve their positions in the CCL power rankings.
Until then, check out the second power rankings of the year.
As previously mentioned, Santa Barbara managed to stay hot through the third week of CCL play. The team managed to carry its three-game winning streak from the second week of the season throughout nearly all of week three. The Foresters won seven straight before finally dropping one to the San Luis Obispo Blues.
The Foresters nearly blew their first game of the week against the Orange County Riptide, but managed to sneak out with a walk-off victory. From there, they dominated. The Foresters took advantage of weaker competition in the San Diego Waves and the San Diego Bombers, beating the pair of CCL affiliate teams with a combined score of 26-6 across the three games.
Santa Barbara’s success is driven by its dominance on both sides of the ball. Its 8.9 runs per game puts it in a close second to the Crawdads’ league-leading 9.1 mark. On the pitching side, its 2.78 ERA is one of the best marks in the league. While its defense has allowed errors that have come back to bite the team, the defense hasn’t done anywhere near enough damage to destroy the dominant offense and pitching.
It’s early in the season, and a lot can change, but as things stand, the Foresters look like the team to beat.
The Crawdads were on top of the CCL world at the end of the second week of games. They carried a six-game win streak to the top of the power rankings, but since then have gone 2-4.
Walnut Creek started the week with its winning ways continuing. It beat the San Francisco Seagulls for the second time this year, 7-1. After that, however, the Crawdads would drop games to the Menlo Park Legends, the CCL-affiliated Alameda Merchants, the Arroyo Seco Saints and the Sonoma Stompers. The only win they were able to pick up in the back half of the week came against the CCL-affiliated Philippines Baseball Group, who only have one win to date.
The Crawdads’ 118 runs are still first in the CCL, but the run production hasn’t been the same as of late. The Crawdads have floundered against starting pitching recently and have been held to four runs or less in their last three losses. The inconsistent pitching staff’s command issues have also hurt them multiple times now, and an increasing number of defensive errors haven’t helped.
The Crawdads have all the pieces to be good, and we’ve already seen a dominant stretch out of them, but the only reason they’re not lower in the power rankings is because they started so strong.
The Stompers are the perfect example of a team on the rise. After starting the season a respectable 7-5, they’re putting pressure on the Crawdads to become the top non-affiliated team in the CCL North.
After splitting a set against the Blues, Sonoma beat PBG, lost a 1-0 game to the Saints, bounced back against Legends — holding them to two hits and winning 9-0 — and then faced its toughest challenge yet in the Crawdads. As previously mentioned, the Stompers would win that game, but not only did they win, they dominated, winning 10-4. Sonoma plays two more games against the Crawdads after the Monday break. If they win those two games, it’s very likely that they’ll be ahead of the Walnut Creek squad this time next week.
The Stompers have the advantage of having a lineup that scores, on average, more than six runs a game, but the real star of the show is the pitching staff. The staff has dominated its opponents with a league-best 2.57 ERA, and in the league’s largest sample size, too.
The reigning CCL champions didn’t have a horrible week, but it wasn’t a good one either. The Oaks dropped a game to the Saints after beating them to end the second week of action and also dropped a one-off game against the Riptide. The Oaks’ two wins and third loss all came against the Academy Barons.
Conejo won the first game against the Barons handily, before sneaking out a win in the second game and getting walked off in the third to end the week with a 2-3 record. Still, the team isn’t in a bad spot, and its strong start keeps it from falling further down the power rankings.
The Oaks offense — which averages 6.5 runs per game — is strong enough to keep them in games on most days. However, in order to put a stop to the slide and truly put themselves in a position to repeat as champions, the pitching will need to improve. Even when they were in third last week, their 4.21 ERA was a slight concern; since then, it’s jumped to a 4.68 mark. They have strong pitchers, but need to be more consistent as a unit.
The Blues had an interesting week, to say the least. It started out normal enough, and ended with a three-day span where they lost 20-4 to the Barons before handing the Foresters just their second loss of the season. The Blues definitely felt the rollercoaster that a baseball season is this past week.
Apart from the loss against the Barons, the pitching staff was fairly solid. It gave up more than five runs just one other time and held the Stompers, the Saints and the Riptide to three runs or less in three victories. The offense struggled some throughout the week, scoring more than four runs on just two occasions.
When the pitching struggled, the offense seemed to wake up some, but not enough, and when the pitching was good, the offense barely did enough to secure wins, and sometimes, couldn’t take advantage at all. The Blues will need to take advantage of opportunities at a higher rate to jump these power rankings.
The Saints had a very nice 3-1 week, and arguably should be higher than sixth on the power rankings. They destroyed the Oaks 8-1 and the Crawdads 16-4 after eeking out a win against the Stompers. It should’ve been a week on the rise for them, but then they lost to the team right ahead of them, the Blues.
If the Saints didn’t drop that game — A 3-0 loss where they got two-hit by a trifecta of Blues arms — they’d certainly have moved up, but alas, they didn’t. The Saints have shown promise this year, with the three impressive wins in week three of the season and their hot start out of the gate. If they can become more consistent, they can be a real threat as the season continues.
Arroyo Seco’s lineup has the potential to be extremely dangerous; they have quality DI hitters, have exploded for high-scoring affairs and altogether average 7.5 runs per game. Like most teams in the CCL, it’s their pitching — 4.03 ERA — that holds them back at times. If the Pasadena-based team can be more consistent, the league will need to watch out.
The Riptide seemed to be starting the week pretty well. They fought hard against the Foresters in what ultimately was a loss and beat the Oaks 13-4. After the win, they won another game, albeit in much less impressive fashion, against the Blues and dropped one to the Bombers. All-in-all, it ended up being a pretty average week for the Riptide, leading them to not fall, but not rise, especially with the Saints right ahead of them.
Orange County also stood still in categories that extended beyond its record. Its ERA rose slightly from 4.14 at this time last week to 4.26 and its runs per game stayed at 6.8, which, in all fairness, is an impressive mark. Still, without showing much improvement, if any at all, the team remains seventh.
The Legends were another team that appeared to be on the rise at the start of the week. After three straight wins against the Merchants, Crawdads and Seagulls, the Legends managed to get back to .500. Then came Sonoma, who stomped the Legends back to reality,
Menlo Park lost to Sonoma 9-0 and carried the downward momentum through a 5-3 loss against the Seagulls in the two teams’ second meeting of the week. The 3-2 week was still productive, but it ended poorly, and even with beating three teams, not quite enough was done in the first half of the week to excuse the latter two performances.
The pitching staff was able to start chipping away at its 6.19 ERA, getting it down to below six, but the run prevention, especially from the bullpen, isn’t where the team wants it to be. The Legends have good pieces, but better consistency as a team is required.
Credit where credit’s due, the Barons picked up two huge wins against the Blues and the Oaks. Unfortunately for them, they also lost to the Oaks twice and the Bombers once, dropping their season record from 2-5 to 4-8. It was a week to forget in a season that’s quickly becoming a summer to forget for the MLB Academy team.
The team has increased its runs per game from 4.4 last week to 5.75 and has also dropped its ERA from 6.90 to 5.75, but it hasn’t been enough to start stacking wins.
After a horrid 1-9 start, the Seagulls managed to go .500 on the week, and if they can continue to do so, they could rise up the power rankings. For now, though, their start holds them back.
The Seagulls split a set against the Legends, the Merchants narrowly defeated PBG and fell to the Crawdads to wind up at 3-3 on the week. The offense continued to show that they can score runs in bunches at times, and the pitching even had a few solid days, but all in all, the team showed that it has a long way to go.
Affiliate teams aren’t included in the power rankings, but still impact the CCL.
The Alameda Merchants went 2-2 in the third week of CCL play, putting them at 10-5 and just ahead of the Crawdads at the top of the CCL North. If the Merchants were ranked, they’d have a strong argument to be the No. 2 team in the league.
The other three teams, the San Diego Bombers, San Diego Waves and Philippines Baseball Group, have all had much less success. The Bombers’ 1-2 week dropped them to 2-6 on the season, the Waves’ two losses to the Foresters put them at 1-3 and PBG’s 0-3 Northern California road trip puts them at 1-8.
Tune in next week to see how our Power Rankings change after Week 4!
With the second weekend of the CCL’s 2025 season wrapped up and in the rear view mirror, the league is starting to take shape.
The Walnut Creek Crawdads and the Santa Barbara Foresters both enter the league-wide Monday, June 16, off day, leading their respective North and South division with a 6-1 record. The reigning CCL Champions, the Conejo Oaks, are right behind the Foresters after splitting the two games that the teams have played so far.
On the other side of the coin, some teams are still trying to find their groove. The San Francisco Seagulls, Menlo Park Legends and MLB Youth Academy Barons will all be trying to dig themselves out of early-season holes when action resumes on Tuesday.
Until then, check out the first power rankings of the year.
The Crawdads lost their first game of the CCL season to the CCL affiliate Alameda Merchants, falling 9-3. It seems Walnut Creek didn’t like the taste of losing. Since that loss, the Crawdads have won six straight games, scoring 11 or more runs in five of those wins and a low of eight.
Walnut Creek took two from Alameda after its opening day defeat and then went on to sweep two-game sets against both the Seagulls and the San Luis Obispo Blues. On June 10, in San Bruno, against the Seagulls, the Crawdads played their best game of the season. The ‘Dads scored a mind-boggling 24 runs while holding the San Francisco scoreless.
For Walnut Creek, the win was a convergence of great pitching and great hitting. However, for most of the young season, the offense has had to do some heavy lifting due to pitching staff inconsistencies. Players like utility man Joey Donnelly (who’s hitting .714 in his last seven games) and the first base duo of John Youens and Kam Taylor (who both have two home runs) have helped the lineup to overcome anything that’s been thrown at them and score a league-leading 81 runs.
The Foresters’ three-game winning streak isn’t quite the six straight wins that the Crawdads have, but it’s nothing to scoff at. Santa Barbara has done well against high competition in the CCL and finished its week going 3-0 with a +24 run differential against CCL affiliates, the Philippines Baseball Group and San Diego Bombers.
The Foresters’ only loss of the young summer came against the Oaks on June 11. Santa Barbara gave up two runs in the seventh and eighth innings, losing 9-5. It was a disappointing loss as the Foresters led 4-0 at one point, but they can hang their hat on the fact that they’ve already beaten the Oaks once this year, winning 14-5 in their previous matchup.
Santa Barbara is scoring plenty of runs — the 70 Foresters that have crossed the plate put the team fourth in the CCL — but is winning due to its pitching. The staff’s 2.61 ERA is the best in the CCL and is led by UC Santa Barbara right-handers Frank Camarillo and AJ Krodel, who combined for 8.1 innings of scoreless baseball this past week.
The reigning champions haven’t had the strongest start to the season, but it’s been far from weak. The Oaks are hot on the tails of the Foresters, and are playing good baseball after a week where they beat them for the first time this summer. Conejo lost to the Barons once in a tight 2-4 game, but beat them twice and the Saints once.
The Oaks’ 4.21 ERA is over 1.5 runs allowed per game higher than Santa Barbara’s ERA, but is still a solid mark in the high-scoring environment of the CCL. With Conejo’s lineup not producing the same high-scoring totals as some of the other teams near the top end of the CCL, Oaks fans have seen a handful of close games that their team has had to navigate.
Conejo will hope to capitalize on the momentum created by its 11-2 victory over the Saints and keep the offense hot. Incoming Oregon freshman and Oaks shortstop Brady Hewitt, alongside left-handed starting pitcher Daniel Morge, were spectacular in the win. Hewitt went 3-4 with a double, a triple and four RBIs while his starter went four scoreless innings, extending a 7.1 scoreless inning streak to start the year.
Photo by Alex Romero, @alex.vromero
The Stompers have had somewhat of a rollercoaster start to their summer. They haven’t been anywhere near as dominant as the teams ahead of them, but they’re still winning series.
Sonoma is coming off of winning a four-game set against the Legends, and prior to that, won a three-game series against the Seagulls. The Stompers have also managed to sprinkle in wins against the Blues and Merchants; however, they’ve also lost to both teams, with the Merchants getting them twice.
Sonoma is playing even closer games than the Oaks. Its last six affairs have all been decided by two runs or less. The Stompers’ 3.51 ERA has managed to keep the team in most games this season, and the offense, while not elite, has done the job on a regular basis.
The Blues had the unfortunate task of facing the Crawdads right when the team was coming off a 3-1 stretch. The Blues took two from the Legends before pummelling the Seagulls 13-1 in a one-off game. Then came the two games at Monte Vista High School against Walnut Creek.
San Luis Obispo made the Crawdads work hard for their win in the first game of a two-game set. Walnut Creek had to come from behind and won in walk-off fashion. The Blues’ second game against the Crawdads wasn’t nearly as close, falling 8-2. Still, the Blues held their own better than other CCL teams have against Walnut Creek.
The offense and pitching have both been up and down for San Luis Obispo, but they’ve shown signs that they can be a strong team when they are firing on all cylinders.
The Saints were on a good run, winning four straight games, before two bad losses to the Orange County Riptide, 9-4, and the Oaks, 11-2. Arroyo Seco went from a team that looked like it could be positioned much higher to the sixth-ranked team in the CCL.
While the Saints were rolling before the two losses, they hadn’t yet played teams of the Riptide and Oaks caliber. Three of the teams’ wins came against the affiliated San Diego Bombers, the affiliated Philippines Baseball group and the Barons. Arroyo Seco did win its first game against the Riptide 11-4, but the two losses, along with its first loss of the summer against the affiliated San Diego Waves, did their damage.
The team was strong last season and can be strong again, but they’ll need to get going and prove themselves against an upcoming schedule that features the Oaks, Blues, Stompers and Crawdads.
The Riptide are in a similar position to the Saints. While they have a winning record, they’ve not done anything too special against a weak schedule. While they understandably lost to a good team in the Foresters, they have two losses to affiliate teams. Orange County’s only other win against a non-affiliated team besides the Saints is against the Barons.
The Riptide has shown solid offensive production (61 runs) and a solid pitching staff (4.14 ERA) in their nine games, but haven’t proven they can beat high-level competition. While you can only try to win against the opponents on your schedule, the fact of the matter remains that the Riptide need to show more to move up the power rankings in the coming weeks.
Photo by: Joey Gray, @jgray.media
The Legends have been able to split four games with the Blues this season, but have struggled to find wins elsewhere. The team is coming off a tough four-game series loss, albeit to a strong team in the Stompers, and also lost a game to the Merchants, giving them their 3-6 record.
Menlo Park has simply struggled against teams that have proven themselves to be better this season. Its pitching staff has a 6.19 ERA and the offense hasn’t been able to keep up.
Despite the struggles, the team does have spots that the Legends hope can provide the spark needed to get the rest of the team going. Dane Most, who hit .303 with Iowa Western Community College in 2025, has been a standout for Menlo Park. He’s coming off a week where he hit .350 with one home run. Right-hander Ray Hernandez had a standout start on the mound, pitching seven innings of one-run ball against the Blues.
Simply put, the Barons have struggled in 2025. So far, the highlight of the season has been a one-off win against the Oaks, with their other victory coming against the affiliated San Diego Bombers.
The Barons have lost to the Oaks, Riptide, Foresters and Saints, and while some games have been close, the Barons haven’t been able to get over the hump. The Barons have only scored 31 runs and their 6.90 ERA leaves much to be desired.
The Seagulls have had an extremely rough start to their first season as a full CCL member. After hovering around .500 in their last season as an affiliate team, they’ve only picked up one win through their first nine games and are on an eight-game skid.
San Francisco’s one win was an impressive one, scoring nine runs and shutting out the Stompers. Sonoma would get its revenge and shut out the Seagulls 14-0 two days later, one of the Seagulls’ two shutout losses.
San Francisco’s stats don’t get much better beyond the win-loss record. Its 8.38 ERA and 3.2 runs per game are the second-lowest, only to the affiliated Philippines Baseball Group. The Seagulls will need a big-time turnaround if they want to climb up these rankings.
The CCL features four affiliate teams: the Alameda Merchants, San Diego Bombers, San Diego Waves and the Philippines Baseball Group. The four teams have had a wide array of starts to the season.
The Merchants, as previously mentioned, are the only team to beat No. 1 Walnut Creek this year, and they have an 8-3 record in CCL play. The Bombers and the Philippines Baseball group are both 1-5, with both teams picking up their one victory against the Riptide. The Waves have only played two CCL games, one against the Saints, which they won, and one against the Riptide, which they lost.
Tune in next week to see how our Power Rankings change after Week 3!
By CCL Reporters Sean Brennan, Sam Nute, and Dylan Wickman
July 31, 2023 // Updated as of 12 a.m.
2023 CCL 30 POSTSEASON
Today, the 2023 California Collegiate League regular season will come to an end, and the landscape of the CCL 30 Postseason – the capstone of the league’s 30th year – will be solidified. A new format will be introduced for this summer’s playoffs, replacing the double-elimination, round-robin layout used for the past two seasons, as five squads will vie to dethrone the two-time defending champion Healdsburg Prune Packers.
The top three seeds based on league record in both the CCL North and South Divisions qualify for the tournament and a chance to reach the CCL 30 State Championship, a best two-out-of-three series taking place from Friday to Sunday, August 4-6. A coin flip at an offseason league meeting determined that the CCL South Division will host the State Championship this year, with the site rotating back and forth between divisions in subsequent years.
Each division’s second and third-ranked teams will kick off the postseason facing off in the single-elimination CCL Wild Card Round on Tuesday, August 1. The winner of the two Wild Card games will then take on their respective division’s first-place team on Wednesday, August 2 for a chance at the CCL crown.
Sitting at 26-9, the Healdsburg Prune Packers are the current host for the No. 1 seed in the North Division and have clinched a postseason berth. After temporarily ceding first place to the Crawdads, Healdsburg took control of the division’s top spot on July 28 and clinched the No. 1 seed with a Crawdads loss on Jul. 31.
However, the aforementioned Walnut Creek Crawdads (25-9) enter the postseason on the heels of an exceptional regular season that saw them challenge the Pack for the North Division’s No. 1 spot until the very end. Walnut Creek’s quest for the CCL 30 State Championship begins when it hosts the CCL 30 Wild Card Round on August 1.
The Crawdads’ opponent in the Wild Card Round is the Lincoln Potters, who clinched the third and final playoff spot in the North Division with a win on July 28. With a league record of 20-15, the Potters have had an up-and-down time in 2023, but have gone 8-3 in their last 12 contests – a stretch that includes series victories over Healdsburg and Walnut Creek.
Rounding out the North are the Sonoma Stompers and Solano Mudcats, who have both been officially eliminated.
Despite remaining unclear until the last minute, the CCL South Division playoff picture is finally solidified. The second-ranked Arroyo Seco Saints have claimed the South’s No. 1 spot with a 21-14 mark, as the division-winning Santa Barbara Foresters (23-10) have elected to compete in NBC World Series, a tournament they have won 10 times. Locked into the No. 2 slot is the Orange County Riptide, who will host the CCL 30 Wild Card Round.
With a win over the MLB Youth Academy Barons on Jul. 30 – the last day of the regular season – the Conejo Oaks (16-19) have clinched the third and final CCL 30 Postseason berth in the South. As a result, the San Luis Obispo Blues (15-20) have been officially eliminated.
Rounding out the division are the Barons, who are 8-26 in league play and have won four of their last five games. As of July 26, the Academy is officially eliminated from playoff contention.
Follow all the action as the quest for the CCL 30 State Championship heats up.
By CCL Reporter Sam Nute
(COMPTON, CA) – On Wednesday, July 12, the CCL’s top talent across the league gathered at the MLB Youth Academy to celebrate the annual CCL Showcase Game. This year’s contest dubbed the CCL 30 Showcase Game honoring the league’s 30th season was broadcasted live on eight Bally Sports’ regional networks across the country.
Sonoma Stompers outfielder Noah Rabin (Illinois State) took home Offensive Player of the Game honors thanks to his monster two-run home run in the fifth inning. On the mound, Santa Barbara Foresters’ right-handed pitcher Robert Cranz set the tone for the South, striking out three in the first inning earning Pitcher of the Game. Healdsburg Prune Packer Damian Bravo (Texas Tech) excelled in the field racking up four putouts en route to the Defensive Player of the Game award.
Cranz shut down the North in the top of the first inning following by an equally impressive performance from North starting pitcher, Prune Packer Myles Patton (Long Beach State).
The offensive would pick-up in the second. An RBI single from Walnut Creek Crawdad Matt King (UTSA) started things off and was soon followed by a throwing error, bringing in the North’s second run.
Throughout the game, each team seemed to answer whenever the other scored. The South did just that with a run in the second frame before taking the lead in the third, completing the game’s first comeback. MLB Youth Academy Barons second baseman Kamau Neighbors (Cal State Northridge) – who was quick on the base paths all night – tied the game at two, scoring from first on a double by Foresters catcher John Newman. The South then took the lead on a passed ball to enter the fourth up 3-2.
The pendulum would swing once again in the fifth inning as the North tied the game on a bases-loaded walk drawn by Stompers catcher Omar Gastelum (San Jose State). With two outs on the board, Rabin would then crushed a 1-1 pitch, sending the game’s lone homer over the right-field wall and giving a 5-3 lead to the North.
It appeared the North might have put the game away when they extended their lead to 7-3 in the top of the seventh, but the South would have one more comeback left in them. After responding with two runs of their own in the bottom of the seventh to cut the lead back to just two, the South exploded for four more in the bottom of the eighth, taking an 8-7 lead on a bloop two-RBI single from Foresters outfielder Will Rogers (Michigan). A sacrifice fly from Conejo Oaks catcher Brendan Durfee would pad the South’s lead, making the score 9-7 heading into the game’s final inning.
Durfee’s insurance run would prove crucial as the North would attempt one more rally, scoring a run in the top of the ninth and advancing the tying run in scoring position. However, the South closed it out, stranding the runner on second to seal a 9-8 CCL 30 Showcase Game victory.
The game was not the only event taking place at the MLB Youth Academy on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, the CCL hosted a combine for scouts and college coaches, USA Baseball Player Development Pipeline testing, and its inaugural Home Run Derby presented by Walter Bat Company. Six sluggers from across the league participated in a single-elimination tournament of three, three-minute rounds.
The objective? Hit as many home runs as possible, and that they did. In the championship round, it was No. 5-seeded shortstop Dominic Hellman (Oregon) from the Foresters and No. 6-seeded catcher Brendan Durfee (Cal Lutheran) from the Oaks facing off.
Durfee topped Hellman’s six home runs with seven of his own, making him the Walter Bat Company 2023 CCL 30 Showcase Game Home Run Derby Champion.
Next up for the league is chase to the 2023 CCL State Championship, August 1-6. Featuring an updated postseason format, the CCL’s 11 teams will vie for a spot in a best two-out-of-three game series Friday to Sunday, August 4-6.
Following a coin flip at a regular offseason league meeting, the South Division representative will serve as the State Championship host this year. The North Division will host next year and rotate back and forth between Northern and Southern California in subsequent years.
To get to the State Championship, the CCL’s second and third place teams from each division, North and South, will take part in the 2023 CCL Division Wild Card Round on Tuesday, August 1. The winners of these two Wild Card games will then play the first-place teams in their respective divisions on Wednesday, August 2 for a chance at taking home the CCL’s 2023 State title.
By CCL Reporters Sean Brennan, Sam Nute, and Dylan Wickman
(LOS ANGELES, CA) – The 2023 NCAA Super Regionals wrapped up with multiple CCL alumni putting on impressive performances. Now, with the beginning of the 2023 NCAA College World Series, the premier event in college baseball has arrived. The CCL has 27 current players or alumni competing on four of eight teams that are battling it out in Omaha. Check out standout performers from the Super Regionals and a complete list of the CCL members competing to win college baseball’s most coveted prize.
We've seen him do that a few times💪
— California Collegiate League (@CCL_Baseball) June 11, 2023
Prepped in the CCL: @PrunePackers alumni @blakeburke_ hits one nearly 480 feet to get Tennessee back within one. 💣 https://t.co/LG7U7GQZ4v
🚨 COWLEY CALLS GAME 🚨
— California Collegiate League (@CCL_Baseball) June 10, 2023
Prepped in the CCL: @ArroyoSecoCCL alum Drew Cowley completes the largest comeback in NCAA Super Regional history as @OregonBaseball erases an eight-run deficit 🦆#CCL30Years #CCLBaseball #SaintsOfSummer #RoadToOmaha #GoDucks https://t.co/0epi1G068c
Tie ballgame 💪
— California Collegiate League (@CCL_Baseball) June 13, 2023
Prepped in the CCL: @SBForesters alum Jack O'Dowd brings @TexasBaseball all the way back, tying Game 3 of the Stanford Super Regional with a bases-clearing double!#CCL30Years #CCLBaseball #steritup #RoadToOmaha #HookEm https://t.co/z4BVF73CZK
Prepped in the CCL 🙌@SBForesters #CCL30Years #CCLBaseball https://t.co/5J2ryqy8SJ
— California Collegiate League (@CCL_Baseball) June 10, 2023
Hey, we know this guy… 💪
— California Collegiate League (@CCL_Baseball) June 11, 2023
Prepped in the CCL: Former @PrunePackers pitcher @samstout15_ holds Indiana State to three runs in a 5.1-inning start, sending @TCU_Baseball to a @CWSOmaha berth!#CCL30Years #CCLBaseball #gopack #RoadToOmaha #FrogballUSA https://t.co/kV21ZGdwQC
(LOS ANGELES, CA)
CCL CELEBRATES 30 YEARS
To kick-off its 30th year, the California Collegiate League released its slate of games for 2023 summer season. All CCL teams will play 35 league games plus select non-league matchups.
2023 CCL POSTSEAON
New for the 2023 summer season will be an updated postseason format. The CCL’s 11 teams will vie for a spot in the 2023 CCL State Championship, a best two-out-of-three game series Friday to Sunday, August 4-6.
Following a coin flip at a regular offseason league meeting, the South Division representative will serve as the State Championship host this year. The North Division will host next year and rotate back and forth between Northern and Southern California in subsequent years.
To get to the State Championship, the CCL’s second and third place teams from each division, North and South, will take part in the 2023 CCL Division Wild Card Round on Tuesday, August 1.
The winners of these two Wild Card games will then play the first-place teams in their respective divisions on Wednesday, August 2 for a chance at taking home the CCL’s 2023 State title.
2023 CCL SHOWCASE GAME
The 2023 CCL Showcase Game will be held at Major League’s Baseball Youth Academy on Wednesday July 12. Close to 60 of the CCL’s best players will be in attendance showing off their skills and talents.
NEW CCL COMMISSIONER
Executive Director, Aaron Milam, announced the addition Dr. Michael J. Simpson as new commissioner earlier this month.
“I am looking forward to celebrating the 30th year of the CCL,” said Simpson. “Collectively we will have an opportunity to reflect on the league’s historic accomplishments and anticipate the excitement of a new season. This summer our teams, players, partners, fans and communities can expect to enjoy an entertaining time at the ballpark and an exhilarating brand of baseball.”
#CCL30Years & #CCLBaseball
Follow all of the action all summer long using the hashtags #CCL30Years and #CCLBaseball.