Oaks Christian making bid for first Marmonte League baseball title
From longshot to league champion inside one week?
The prospects for the Oaks Christian School baseball team to win the Marmonte League championship turned very real Wednesday.
The Lions took down visiting Westlake 7-2, moved into a first-place tie with Calabasas and now have the opportunity to claim the program's first Marmonte crown by winning their regular-season finale Thursday at Westlake.
"We're excited," said Oaks Christian head coach Royce Clayton. "The players have bought in to what we're teaching, and they've never given up. We're going to play hard and see what happens."
Thomas Farmer smacked two doubles, scored two runs and drove in a pair of runs, Elijah Clayton notched two base hits and Royce Clayton Jr. singled, drew a walk and scored twice as Oaks Christian improved to 9-5 in league and 16-10 overall with its second victory this week.
How wild is the Marmonte League race? So wild that any one of three teams can emerge as league champion on the final day of the regular season.
Oaks Christian trailed first-place Calabasas by two games entered league play on Monday. But two consecutive victories by Agoura over the Coyotes, coupled with the Lions' two wins over Westlake, have scrambled everything.
Oaks Christian is tied atop the league with Calabasas (9-5, 19-8). Agoura is just one game back at 8-6 and 15-12.
Here are the possible scenarios:
Oaks Christian wins the league crown if it defeats Westlake (3-11, 11-14) and Agoura beats Calabasas.
Calabasas, owning the tiebreaker over the Lions, is league champ with a win Thursday.
Agoura, with a sweep of Calabasas this week along with an Oaks Christian loss, would finish in first place.
The good news for all three teams is that they're safely qualified for the CIF-Southern Section playoffs.
Oaks Christian, with a win Thursday, will end up first or second in league, which is quite a rally in a year's time. The Lions finished in sixth place a season ago at 4-11.
Oaks Christian has never won a Marmonte League championship since joining the circuit in 2015.
"We're a family," said Royce Clayton Jr., the senior center fielder. "We spend so much time together even if we're not playing baseball. We care about each other."
Oaks Christian took command early Wednesday.
Framer, a junior left fielder, doubled and scored on Leonardo Baez's base hit to take a 1-0 lead in the second. The Lions then scored four times in the third inning, powered by Farmer's two-run double, to hike the advantage to 5-0.
Westlake tallied two runs in the top of the fifth inning, sparked by a single by Nate Kaczynski and a double by Nate Johnson.
The Lions answered with two runs in the bottom of the fifth, keyed by an RBI single from Joseph Steventon.
Owen Tross started on the mound for Oaks Christian and allowed five hits and two runs in four innings. Steventon yielded just two singles in three innings of work.
Loren Ledin is the Prep Editor for The Star. He can be reached at loren.ledin@vcstar.com or 805-437-0285.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Oaks Christian making bid for first Marmonte League baseball title
