Despite a bit of trouble off and on throughout his start, pitcher Tejay Antone worked out of trouble to earn the victory for the Foresters against the North County Indians on Tuesday evening at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.
The Foresters broke open a close 3-2 game with a pair of bunt singles in the seventh inning by Steven Reveles and Austin Darby. Each stole second and advanced on a sacrifice fly by Shane Rowland. Shane Crawford scored Darby on another sacrifice fly to make it 5-2.
After a single, error and walk loaded the bases full of Indians, Antone worked out of the first inning with a short flyout and a pair of strikeouts, but would see trouble off and on as the game progressed.
The offense immediately backed Antone, scoring a two runs in the bottom half of the first inning. Ben Johnson reached first after being hit by a pitch and Darby, in his first at-bat of the season for Santa Barbara, doubled to deep center. Indians center fielder Michael Frigone booted the ball in, scoring Johnson and allowing Darby to roll into third.
Darby scored shortly after on a wild pitch from Indians pitcher Evan Peterson.
Antone also struggled a bit in the third, allowing three singles which brought home a run for the Indians. However, the Foresters immediately responded in the third with a run to push the score back to 3-1 after Reveles stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a Rowland sacrifice fly.
Peterson would not live to see the end of the fourth inning, leaving after 75 pitches in three and 1/3 innings of work and two men left on base. The Foresters failed to take advantage of the Indians bullpen in the inning, as Kyle Brown walked a pair, but worked out of the inning.
After allowing a one-out single in the fifth, the Indians scored following a double by Mac Stuart before Antone worked his way out of trouble again. Brian Murphy replaced Antone on the mound for the sixth inning and pitched two scoreless innings before giving way to Brendon Shoemake who pitched a perfect ninth to earn the save.
Short on position players, Saturday’s pitchers Ty Culbreth and Patrick Weigel played designated hitter and first base respectively and combined to go 0-4 with three walks and a stolen base by Culbreth.
