Oaks Christian baseball edges Calabasas in thriller to win share of league title

CALABASAS — With the Marmonte League title at stake, the Oaks Christian baseball team scored a run in the top of the seventh inning and held on to beat Calabasas 8-7 on Friday.

The Lions (21-6, 11-4) and Westlake finish as league co-champs and both advance to the CIF Southern Section playoffs.

The game’s outcome was still undecided in the seventh when the Lions’ KJ Henrich stepped to the plate. There were two outs and runners were on first and second base. The sophomore outfielder hit a double to drive in Ryan Sheffer for the go-ahead run.

“I had a lot of visualization on deck, and it just came together,” Henrich said of his winning hit. “I got my pitch, I hit it really hard and felt great.”

Henrich’s heroics at the plate helped the Lions overcome some rough moments on the mound.

Senior Connor Sahagun started the game shaky and gave up two home runs in the first inning. Calabasas senior Evan Barak and sophomore Auron Blackledge hit the home runs.

Sahagun bounced back and threw four straight scoreless innings. But his control faltered in the bottom of the sixth as he gave up three hits and one run.

“Connor struggled executing his 0-2 pitches, his two-strike pitches in the first, and they hit a couple of homers off of them,” Oaks Christian head coach Rick Hirtensteiner said. “And then he put up zeros for four innings in a row, and gave us a chance to win.”

Hirtensteiner brought in senior Jack Brinkman to replace Sahagun on the mound. Brinkman gave up a single that drove in two runs and tied the score at 7-7. Brinkman then gave up two consecutive walks, but got out of the sixth inning after that.

Brinkman found himself in another tough situation in the bottom of the seventh. Calabasas had runners on second and third after a single and a hit batter.

Barak was the next batter and he already had two hits in the game. On a 1-2 count, Barak put the ball in play but the Lions got an out at first base to end the game.

Brinkman finished with three strikeouts, three hits allowed and two walks.

“Jack came in and shut the door with a little bit of effort,” Hirtensteiner said. “But you know, if it’s too easy, it doesn’t mean as much … When you have to fight the whole season, and even in the last game to win, and you’re up, then it’s tied, and you come back and win. It’s just a lot more exciting and means more.”

“The team is pretty tough. They’re pretty resilient,” Hirtensteiner added.

With the playoffs around the corner, Hirtensteiner said he knows his group will be ready to compete.

“When we showed up on campus in August we had a lot of practices at night and on the weekends,” Hirtensteiner said. “Guys were working hard and they made a bunch of improvements, so it’s nice to see that hard work pays off and that we kept getting better.”