PASADENA, CA- The Arroyo Seco Saints’ (20-15) 18-12 win against the Conejo Oaks on July 19 became official today after the teams completed the last two half innings before their regularly scheduled game in Thousand Oaks today.

The game could not be completed on the original date after it dragged on with 30 combined runs scored and a 30-minute umpire delay that made the game surpass the 10 pm deadline when the lights turned off at Jackie Robinson Field.  

Saints’ starting pitcher Danny Veloz (Hawaii) allowed back-to-back one-out hits, the second being an RBI double, giving the Oaks a 1-0 lead before the Saints even had a turn at bat. Veloz settled down and got back-to-back strikeouts to end the threat.  

To make matters better, the Saints opened the game on an offensive tear. Alex Birge (UC Berkeley) tied the game with an RBI single, which his future college teammate Joey Donnelly (UC Berkeley) immediately followed up with a deep fly ball that looked to be a go-ahead sacrifice fly until the Oaks center fielder dropped it, allowing Donnelly to reach base and let not one, but two runs to score. The Saints carried a 3-1 lead into the second inning.  

Veloz continued relying on his swing-and-miss stuff in the top of the second, getting two more strikeouts and working around a leadoff walk to pitch another scoreless inning. The Saints put up a decent threat in the bottom of the second, with Tyler Gordon (UC Riverside) and Easton Elliot (Long Beach) both lining opposite-field singles to put runners on first and second. However, neither runner scored and the score remained 3-1.  

Veloz benefitted from a beautiful double play in the top of the third, turned by Gordon at shortstop and Cam Conley (Pepperdine) at second base, which erased a leadoff single and got the starter through another scoreless inning.  

The Saints added two more runs in the bottom of the third. Birge and Donnelly fueled the rally again with back-to-back singles to open the frame, putting the catcher and first baseman on first and third, respectively. Birge scored after a throwing error by the Oaks’ catcher trying to throw out Donnelly stealing second, and Donnelly eventually came around to score on a sacrifice fly hit by Josh Livingston (Wichita State).  

Neither side had much going offensively in the fourth inning and the score stayed 5-1.  

In the top of the fifth, Aidan Pollock (Nevada) came on in relief of Veloz and pitched a one-two-three inning, helped by two good plays from Donnelly.  

The bottom of the fifth was the hallmark inning of this game and one of the best of the season for the Saints. To begin the inning, the Saints loaded the bases with nobody out, and the Saints took full advantage of the offensive opportunity.  

Conley knocked in a run with an RBI walk, which Gordon followed up with an RBI hit-by-pitch to make the score 7-1.  

That brought up Saints’ leadoff hitter Jakob Schardt, who crushed a grand slam into dead center field. The most productive swing of the season made the score a whopping 11-1 and gave Schardt the team lead in home runs with three on the summer. Finally, the Saints gave an Oaks team that had terrorized them offensively a taste of their own medicine.  

Pollock pitched another clean inning in the sixth, and an RBI single from Elliot extended the Saints’ lead to 12-1.  

The Oaks got three runs back in the top of the seventh to make the score 12-4.  

The Saints got all those runs back and then some in the bottom of the seventh. Livingston, Sheehan O’Connor (New Mexico State) and Nick Lazzara (Trinity) had RBI hits in the inning and the Saints put up six more runs, ballooning the score to 18-4.  

However, that point was when the excruciatingly long game started to especially unravel. Between the bottom of the seventh and the top of the eighth, the home plate umpire fell ill and could not continue the game. Consequently, one of the field umpires had to run home and grab his home plate umpire gear, causing a delay that lasted almost 30 minutes.  

Then, perhaps due to the weird delay but also partially credited to the potent and never-surrendering Oaks offense, the Saints surrendered 8 runs in the bottom of the eighth to bring the Oaks from down 14 to down only 6. The Saints finally completed the inning, but not before the clock showed about 9:55, making it virtually impossible for the game to continue so both coaches and the umpires agreed to suspend the game.  

At the time, it was unclear if the game would be resumed and completed at another date. After much deliberation, the Saints and Oaks finally settled on July 28 as a makeup date for the final inning or so.  

So nine days later, the game resumed. Fortunately for the Saints, the offensive vibes carried over seamlessly over the 9-day break. On the first pitch of the bottom of the eighth, Livingston crushed a solo home run to right field to extend the Saints’ lead to 19-12.  

Jace Presley (Gardner-Webb) looked much better than he did in the eighth inning nine days ago after a couple of great outings in between and he pitched a scoreless ninth to finally secure the big win.  

The Saints began the regularly scheduled game 30 minutes after the conclusion of the resumed one.  

Contributors:

• Saints reporter Ethan Inman (Southern California)
• Saints reporter and photographer Noah Pineda (UT Austin)