Agoura baseball beats Oakwood in playoffs with shutout from Donovan Anthony

AGOURA HILLS — Agoura senior pitcher Donovan Anthony missed time during the regular season due to an injury. But it didn’t look like it Friday in the Chargers’ first-round playoff game against Oakwood.

Anthony pitched a shutout with 13 strikeouts. He gave up only two hits and one walk, as the Chargers defeated the Owls 4-0 at Agoura High to advance in the CIF-SS Division 3 playoffs.

“(Anthony) is our leader for sure,” Agoura head coach Adam Goldstein said. “We follow him, and today he just left it all on the mound. He’s still battling, but he was never going to come out, and he had three pitches working.”

Agoura (16-13) finished the game with four hits, and each one made an impact.

In the bottom of the first, sophomore third baseman Colton Mellinger lined a triple into the outfield. Senior shortstop Branden Oliver hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Mellinger for a 1-0 lead.

The next hitter for the Chargers was senior Tyler Starling. On the fourth pitch of his at-bat, he swung and launched the ball over the fence for a home run.

“Tyler just has that kind of power,” Goldstein said. “That ball ended up in the pool (beyond the fence). He’s not a showboat kid, but he was watching it, so I knew it was gone off the bat. He’s a special athlete.”

Mellinger added to the lead with a home run in the third inning.

Oakwood (21-2) started sophomore Rocko Clapp on the mound. He gave up all four hits, including the two home runs.

His coach was pleased with his overall performance.

“I thought (Rocko) pitched pretty doggone well,” Oakwood head coach Avery Ware said. “(Agoura) is good, they’ll take advantage of a mistake. (Rocko) just left a ball or two up, and they got ahold of it. Other than that, he kept a lot of good hitters at bay. And baseball’s one of those games where you capitalize on opportunities, and they capitalized on two pitches that were just a little bit up. That’s what got us today.”

Agoura advances to face Pacifica of Garden Grove in the second round. The game on Tuesday will be at Pacifica.

Goldstein liked how his team came out against Oakwood.

“These boys actually have never played in the playoffs,” Goldstein said. “It was trying to get emotions in check, get rid of anxiety, and come out with just who they are, and that’s what they did today. What you saw at the beginning was just pure emotion, pure happiness, and it was fun to start that way.”