July 22, 2016 San Luis Obispo, CA San Luis Obispo Blues starting pitcher Brendan Nail (Western Carolina) allowed only one run and had seven strikeouts over five innings against the Santa Barbara Foresters tonight, and the Blues hitters strung together four consecutive singles to score two runs in the seventh inning to break a 2-2 tie and went on to win 4-2 at Sinsheimer Park. The Blues and Foresters traded one-run innings in the fourth, fifth and sixth before Holden Morris (Penn), Blake Johnson (Alabama Birmingham), Garrett Dodd (Louisiana Tech) and Gene Wood (Alabama) went on their four consecutive hit spree. Wood and Walt Hogan (Hendrix) each had two hits and an RBI to lead the Blues tonight. The Foresters got a nice outing from starting pitcher Matt Hartman (Arizona) who had nine strikeouts in five innings, but he did allow the first two Blues runs on three hits and did not figure in the decision, and Lex Kaplan (Tulane) had three hits, one a double, to lead Santa Barbara. The victory by the Blues tightened the race for both the CCL Central Division and the wildcard berths to the CCL playoffs next weekend. Improving to 14-12, the Blues lead the wildcard chase by a mere seven percentage points over the Conejo Oaks, who also won today, and trail the Foresters for the Central Division title and an automatic berth to the playoffs, by two and a half games. The Foresters record fell to 18-11 and, with four games left to be decided in their regular season, their magic number to clinch a playoff spot remains at two. See the boxscore/recap here. Also in the CCL today: Thousand Oaks, CA Gabe Gunter (Cal Lutheran) hit a two-run home run in the third inning, a two-run double in the fourth, and Codi Santana (Hawaii Pacific) hit a two-run homer in the fifth as the Conejo Oaks beat the Ventura Halos 12-5 at Sparky Anderson Field. Both Gunter and Santana finished with a game-high four RBI, Santana adding two singles to go with his home run, and Jake Arledge (Arkansas) scored three runs without getting a hit today as he had the dubious distinction of reaching base three times by way of getting hit by a pitch. Ray Diaz (Northridge) started on the mound for Conejo and recorded eight strikeouts over five innings to earn the win. Ventura got a nice performance offensively from the top of their order as leadoff hitter Ben Skinner (Harvard) had two hits, an RBI and a run scored, and Kaleb Murphy (USC) got three hits and scored twice. The victory by the Oaks tightened the race for both the CCL Central Division and the wildcard berths to the CCL playoffs next weekend. Improving to 17-15, the Oaks trail the San Luis Obispo Blues, who beat the Santa Barbara Foresters 4-2 tonight, by a mere seven percentage points for the wildcard berth, and trail the Foresters for the Central Division title and an automatic berth to the playoffs, by two and a half games. See the boxscore/recap here. Compton, CA The Southern California Catch had 19 hits, six of them doubles, and scored nine runs in the third inning en route to pounding the Academy Barons 16-2 tonight at the MLB Urban Youth Academy. Four Catch hitters had three-hit games tonight and Josh Rojas (Hawaii), Sam Mrstik (Dallas Baptist) and Nate Pecota (William Jewell) each had doubles, Mrstik twice, and each drove in three runs. On the mound, four Catch pitchers combined to limit the Barons offense to three hits, led by James Goodwin (Biola) who pitched three shutout innings to pick up the win. The result of the game may have been inconsequential to the Barons who clinched the CCL South Division title last night and have an automatic berth in the playoffs next weekend but, for the Catch, the win tonight keeps their wildcard hopes alive. At 15-16, the Catch trail the San Luis Obispo Blues in the wildcard race by one and a half games with five games remaining. With the loss, the Barons fall to 21-8, two games ahead of the Neptune Beach Pearl who won today, for the top spot in the CCL standings. See the today's boxscore/recap here. Oakland, CA The Neptune Beach Pearl clinched the CCL North Division title and an automatic berth to the CCL playoffs next weekend with a 6-2 win over the Walnut Creek Crawdads tonight at Laney College. Game and player stats were not available at post time but the win improves the Pearl's record to 16-8, three games better than the Healdsburg Prune Packers, who were idle in CCL play tonight, with two games remaining. The 2016 CCL Playoff format and schedule can be viewed here.