July 13, 2016 Compton, CA Chad Spanberger (Conejo Oaks, Arkansas) hit a mammoth grand slam deep over the right-center field wall in the first inning of the CCL All-Star Game tonight at the MLB Urban Youth Academy as the CCL's South All-Stars beat the CCL's North All-Stars 10-9 in the eighth edition of the league's midsummer showcase. Spanberger's blast immediately brought back the memory of Tommy Bell's (Cal Baptist) dramatic walk-off three-run homer in the ninth inning of last year's all-star game and earned the Arkansas outfielder game MVP honors just as the game was getting started. Bell, as it happened, was also in tonight's game, making his second straight all-star appearance as a member of the Orange County Riptide, and he came very close to matching his 2015 performance, narrowly missing a home run when he laced a ball off the top of the wall in the sixth inning. Both all-star squads, as expected from the first half results of the 2016 season, showcased the hitters' strength in the league this year. The 19 combined runs and 22 combined hits were both all-star bests in the eight-year history of the event. Fifity-four players played in the game which makes for a lengthy boxscore and limited opportunities to rack up big numbers. Besides Spanberger and Bell, some of the top performances in this year's all-star game included: Jacob Patterson (Conejo Oaks, Texas Tech) who pitched an inning and two-thirds, accounting for each of the outs in his appearance by way of strikeout (five); Jacob Friedman (Ventura Halos) who had three strikeouts in his one inning of work; Kaleb Murphy (Ventura Halos, USC) two hits and three RBI; and, Renae Martinez (Neptune Beach, Oklahoma) three RBI. Max Weinstein (Conejo Oaks, Cal Lutheran) two-for-two with two RBI. The pitchers for the South All-Stars dominated in the strikeout category, compiling a combined total of 17 strikeouts to the North All-Stars five. Each of the eight South All-Star pitchers used the game, most of whom pitched only one inning in the showcase, had at least one strikeout. Tonight's game was broadcast live nationwide by Fox Sports West and DVD copies of the broadcast will be available for purchase in about a week. At this time there is no accurate boxscore for the game. We are working to get the problem resolved. We may have to wait for the DVD copy of the game and totally reenter the stats.