WESTLAKE — Oak Christian baseball’s Elijah Clayton almost didn’t play in Friday’s game against Newbury Park.
The shortstop hurt his hamstring in the Lions’ loss to the Panthers on Tuesday but toughed it out to help his team win on Thursday. On Friday, his walk-off hit in the seventh inning secured a 4-3 win to finish off the Marmonte League series.
“I was feeling my swing the whole game,” Clayton said. “It felt good. I knew it was going to come and I was just trying to get get a base hit there and get my next man up and just caught one.”
Clayton, a Cal Berkeley commit, hadn’t had a base hit all game until his rocket to the left-field wall sent Quentin Young across home plate. Young had gotten on base with two outs just before Clayton had stepped up to the plate for the Lions (11-10 overall, 6-3 in Marmonte League).
Oaks Christian’s Friday win is a valuable one in the Marmonte League standings. The Lions are now in second place behind Westlake and Calabasas, which are both tied for first place at 7-2.
“We’re a few wins back from Westlake and Calabasas, so we needed this win to stay in it,” Clayton said. “That for sure pushed us to get this win today, so it’s huge.”
Newbury Park (12-8, 4-5) was the first to score on an overcast Friday afternoon that only reached a temperature of 60 degrees. Cole Munyon was walked, then reached second base on a passed ball. Cade Falsken singled to drive him in in the top of the fifth inning.
Falsken’s baserunning abilities scored another run for the Panthers when he stole third base and later beat the throw home for a 2-0 advantage in the same inning.
Oaks Christian tied the game in the bottom of the fifth inning on a two-run single from Carson Sheffer. James Latshaw and Joshua Brown each scored runs.
Connor Sahagun came in to pitch for the Lions at the start of the sixth inning and gave up one hit and one run while striking out three hitters. He relieved James Latshaw, who recorded four strikeouts in five innings of work.
“He kept working out of jams,” coach Royce Clayton said of Sahagun. “He kept us in the ball game. That’s all we could ask and his count got up and Connor went in and pitched two good innings and you know were able to hold it together.”
Falsken came up big again for Newbury Park when he singled in the seventh inning. He advanced to third on a balk, then Owen Meli later drove him in on a single to tie the game at 3-3.
The Panthers were in scoring position once more in the inning but Paul Lizzul popped out to center fielder Jack Laubacher, who made the throw to third base to get Medhurst out and end the inning.
“We’ve had some tough games that we lost like this. We’ve been walked off three or four times,” Royce Clayton said. “I just kept saying that it’s gonna be our time when we get on the other side of that. We couldn’t have picked a better time.”
More baseball scores from Friday:
Valencia 16, Canyon 2
Calabasas 5, Thousand Oaks 1
Orange Lutheran 3, Harvard-Westlake 2 (9 innings)
Chaminade 9, Birmingham 7
Saugus 9, Golden Valley 1
Hart 7, Castaic 3
Moorpark 2, Royal 1
Camarillo 12, Oak Park 1
Westlake 8, Agoura 0
Chavez 12, Arleta 1
Granada Hills 10, Taft 0
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