THOUSAND OAKS, CA – On Father’s Day, the Arroyo Seco Saints (4-3) traveled to Thousand Oaks for their second road game of the season, to square off against the Conejo Oaks (5-2).  

The Saints were coming off a bitter road loss to the Orange County Riptide, with the final score of the game being 9-4. To bounce back in the win column against the defending champs, the Saints had to minimize their mistakes and stay consistent on offense. 

That approach did not fare well for the Saints, as it would be hard for anyone on the team to get anything started. 

“Playing at home versus on the road definitely had something to do with that,” Head Coach Aaron Milam said. “You play during a day game here, you are playing under the lights last night.” 

Through the first five innings, the Saints’ offense could only muster one hit coming from Joey Milto (Transfer Portal) and, through seven innings, were only able to get two hits, the second one from Jack Little (Baylor).  

The Oaks, on the other hand, had their offense ready to play, taking charge of the game in the fourth inning. Already having a 2-0 lead, Oaks’ Brady Hewitt (Oregon) would hit a three-RBI triple to put the Oaks up 5-0.  

Hewitt would then be brought home from an RBI single by Devon Wilkes (Cal State Bakersfield), making it 6-0.  

The Saints were able to get a run back in the top of the fifth from a groundout RBI from Trotter Enright (Cal State Long Beach), but the Oaks would have an answer for that as well.  

In the bottom of the fifth, the Oaks would score four more runs via multiple RBI singles off the bats of Jacob Galloway (Texas A&M), Hewitt and Tyler Holley (Cal State Fullerton). In the bottom of the sixth, another run from Lucas Danielewicz (Cal Lutheran) pushed the score to 11-1. 

Even with the scoring seemingly out of hand, Milam was happy to see that his team was still putting the effort into the game.  

“I did like seeing that we’re down 10 runs at the end of the game and these guys are still trying to score,” Milam said. “They didn’t mail it in; that’s a good deal.” 

That effort would pay off in the eighth inning as Keon Moseni (Central Arkansas) used his only at-bat of the game, to bring home Jax Ryan (Arizona State) for their second run.  

After this game, Milam mentioned that he liked the effort that his team showed but is looking for ways his team can improve. One of those things is having trust while pitching. 

“Off-speed pitches counted for [six runs for the Oaks] today” Milam explained. “Throw fastballs until they prove they can hit it.” 

This is the biggest deficit that the Saints have lost in the young season.  

The Saints now move to 4 wins and 3 losses overall, with a shot to get back to a win streak on Tuesday. They will play the Conejo Oaks once again at Sparky Anderson Field in Thousand Oaks, California, with the first pitch slated for a 4:30 p.m. start time. 

Contributors:

• Saints reporter Nick Olquin (Ashland University)
• Edited by Tyler Bowne (San Diego State)