June 29, 2017 Healdsburg, CA Dane Tofteland (Indiana St) hit a home run with two outs and one runner on in the bottom of the ninth inning and Nickolas Oar (Stanford) drove home the winning run in the bottom of the eleventh as the Healdsburg Prune Packers upended the Walnut Creek Crawdads 9-8 tonight at Recreation Park. Walnut Creek reliever Max Gray had retired the first two batters he faced in the ninth inning before Cameron Warren (Texas Tech) reached on a single and Tofteland’s dramatic homer sent the game into extras. The inning reflected what happened throughout the game. The Crawdads posted an early 6-2 lead, highlighted by a five-run fifth inning in which Matt Poulin drove in two runs with a double and Nick Simmons (Diablo Valley JC) drove Poulin home with a triple, only to have the Prune Packers answer with three runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI-double by Bryce Nagata (Sonoma St) and run-scoring singles by Grant Little (Texas Tech) and Warren. Then, after Healdsburg had tied the score at 6-6 in the sixth inning on a Landon Etzel (Houston) single, Spencer Lininger (Feather River) doubled to lead off the seventh and scored on another Simmons RBI-hit, and Lininger drove in another run in the eighth inning to give the Crawdads a renewed lead of 8-6, only to have Tofteland thwart it with one swing of the bat. Ricky Clark (Sonoma St) pitched the last three and two-thirds innings of the game scoreless for Healdsburg, including four strikeouts, to pick up the win. Lininger had a game-high three hits to lead Walnut Creek and six Healdsburg hitters finished with multiple-hit performances, including Little who hit a solo home run in the first inning for the first tie of the game after Sean Watkins (Cal St LA) opened the scoring with an RBI-double for Walnut Creek. Click here for recaps of this game Elsewhere around the CCL today: Fairfield, CA Aaron Fritts (Spokane Falls CC) drove in three runs on a pair of triples and a single, and Nate Verlin (Pacific) added an RBI triple of his own to lead the Auburn Wildcats to a 14-8 win over the Rockville Rock Hounds today at Yarborough Stadium. Fritts’ three hits and three RBI were game-high totals as all ten Auburn hitters to come to the plate recorded a hit. The Wildcats scored eight unanswered runs in the their first five at bats, including plating six in the third inning on seven hits. Rockville got on the board in the bottom of the fifth inning, scoring six times themselves on eight consecutive hits before an out was recorded, including a three-run home run by Max Smith (UNLV) to get within striking distance, 8-6. Auburn wasn’t done scoring, however, adding a run in the sixth inning, one in seventh and four in the ninth, two coming on an RBI-double by Adam Moreau (Dayton), to put the game out of reach. Smith, who hit a triple in the eighth inning, was one of four Rockville players to record a multiple-hit game. Zachary Bartelme (Holy Nars) led all Rock Hounds hitters with three. Click here for recaps of this game San Luis Obispo, CA The San Luis Obispo Blues scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to ruin a well-pitched game by Josh Aguilar and John Szczesny (Azusa Pacific) to beat the Long Beach Legends 5-4 tonight at Sinsheimer Park. Aguilar and Szczesny had kept the Blues at bay for eight innings, allowing only one run, scattering seven hits and walking only one batter, while the Long Beach hitters posted an early 4-0 lead on a two-run home run by Harrison Smith (Oral Roberts) in the second inning and a two-run double by Jake Sahagian (Sonoma St) in the third. But all that effort of working around hits and giving little away for free was undone in the ninth as the strike zone vanished for Smith, who came in to pitch the ninth and promptly walked the first three batters he faced. The Blues hitters took advantage of the free passes, scoring all three on a pair of RBI-singles by Tyson Quolas (Monterey Bay) and Marco Murillo (Campbellsville), before the fourth walk of the inning loaded the bases again with one out and, fittingly, the walk-off game winning run scored during the next at bat on a hit batsman. San Luis Obispo had closed the score to 4-1 in the fifth inning when Jeremy Jess (Pomona-Pitzer) led off with a double and scored on a Quolas double. Click here for recaps of this game Pasadena, CA Blake Burton (Washington) hit a go-ahead home run in the seventh inning and Brendan Krob (Evansville) hit a two-out, bases-loaded, two-run double in the eighth to lead the Arroyo Seco Saints to a 4-1 win over the Southern California Catch today at Jackie Robinson Stadium. Burton’s solo shot came one inning after the Saints had finally gotten to Catch starting pitcher Chris Vargas (UC Irvine), who had thrown five shutout innings before issuing a leadoff walk to Dustin Krob (Dayton). Krob eventually advanced to second on a groundout and scored on a two-out single by Spencer Mossburg (Lee) to tie the score 1-1. Vargas was replaced on the mound by Tallon Thomason (Fresno CC) and, with one out, Burton put the Saints ahead for good. Mitchell Bumann (Hawaii-Pacific) accounted for the Catch run with a solo home run in the fourth inning. Brendan Krob finished with a game-high three hits, while Bumann and Shay Whitcomb (UCSD) had two hits each to lead the Catch. Quint Robinson (Tennessee) picked up the win for Arroyo Seco, in relief for starter Gordon Ingebritson who scattered six hits and two walks over six innings to allow only one run. Click here for recaps of this game Santa Barbara, CA Walker Grisanti (Vanderbilt) walked (odd?), advanced to second on a wild pitch, advanced to third on a balk and scored on a two-out single by Evan Lee (Arkansas) in the tenth inning to lead the Santa Barbara Foresters to a 6-5 walk-off win over the Ventura Halos today at Pershing Park. The Foresters had posted an early 5-1 lead, scoring once in the first inning when leadoff hitter David Hamilton (Texas) tripled and scored on a groundout, three times in the third, including a solo home run by John McMillon (Texas Tech), and once in the sixth when Jake Pavletich (Cal St Fullerton) hit the third single of the inning to plate a run, and starting pitcher Jake McDonald (Texas Tech) made it stick, recording six strikeouts with one walk and four hits in six-plus innings of work. When McDonald left the game, however, Ventura came back, scoring twice in the eighth inning on an run-scoring single by Joey Mendez (Fresno St) and a passed ball, and twice more in the ninth to tie the score 5-5 on an RBI-double by Rudy Aguilar (Ventura JC) and an error. Jack Cunningham came in to pitch for Ventura in the eighth inning and held Santa Barbara at bay, for a while, striking out five as the Halos came back, but the walk to Grisanti to lead off the tenth and the ensuing free bases was the difference. Luke Ritter (Wichita St) had a game-high three hits for Santa Barbara, while Ventura’s hits-leader had two, a double and single by Christian Jones (Washington).