By Emma del Sol
Both pitching and hitting were the major themes today in the ‘Sters 12-0 win over the Walnut Creek Crawdads. Sam Odom made his Foresters debut today and was on fire, pitching seven scoreless innings giving up three scattered hits and striking out five. Granger Studdard provided key offensive hits. Studdard had two doubles, a single, and three RBI.
Odom from Sam Houston State was able to keep the Crawdads quiet today in his ‘Sters debut. While the Crawdads were able to get the first base runner of the game, they were unable to capitalize on anything today, leaving seven men on. On the other end of the spectrum the ‘Sters only left two base runners on and had a whopping fifteen hits.
The Foresters broke the game wide open in the bottom of the fourth inning with four runs on five hits. After reaching on a single, leadoff batter Colt Atwood scored on a wild pitch. Jaylin Davis, Jake Vickerson, and David Greer also scored in the inning. Greer came home on a 0-2 double over the left fielder’s head by Granger Studdard.
Atwood led off the next inning with a single and stole his eleventh base of the year. The next batter Vickerson, had a single to right scoring Atwood.
The ‘Sters continued their offensive power in the sixth inning, this time scoring two runs on a ground ball single by Greer that took a bad hop. Bret Boswell advanced to third on the single, and after an error on the throw by the shortstop trying to get Greer at second, both runs were able to come across the plate.
Odom pitched seven scoreless innings and didn’t give up a hit after the fifth inning.
The Foresters were on fire again in the eighth inning scoring five more runs. Davis, Reggie Southall, Boswell, and Vance Vizcaino all had singles in the inning, while Colin Yellich and Studdard had doubles deep to center field.
Nick Diamond came in to relieve Brock Larson who had pitched a scoreless and hitless eighth inning. The Crawdads looked as if they were going to get a run after loading the bases with two outs, however Diamond with his nasty curveball, was able to strike out the Beer Batter Aaron Cook to end the game. ‘Sters complete their second game in a row without an error.
Manager Bill Pintard was very impressed with the Foresters offensive performance as well as the performance of starting pitcher Odom. Pintard wanted to reward Odom with the EP Beverage Player of the Game for his phenomenal pitching performance, while hitting coach Gary Woods wanted to reward the entire Foresters offense with the game’s top honors. Woods singled out Studdard for his 3-4 plate appearance with two doubles, a single, and three RBI.
Join us tomorrow as the ‘Sters look to go for the sweep and take on the Crawdads at 1 pm!
