By Ryan Greenberg
The Santa Barbara Foresters put together a dominant season-opening performance against CCL rivals San Luis Obispo Blues, earning a 6-1 victory at Pershing Park thanks in part to Rocco Garza-Gongora’s 3 RBIs.
In the bottom of the first inning, Daniel Patterson reached base on an infield single to lead off the inning. Patterson then demonstrated why he’s in the leadoff spot, and promptly stole second base. Ryan Black then smacked a single into right field, driving in Patterson for the first run of the game. The Foresters scratched off another run in the first inning thanks to a RBI single from Garza-Gongora.
The Foresters added another run to their lead in the second inning from a fielder’s choice. With runners at the corners, Will Rogers hit a ground ball to the Blues’ shortstop. The Blues attempted to turn a double play, but Rogers out-hustled the throw to first base, allowing a run to score for the Foresters.
The Blues cut into the Foresters lead to take a 3-1 ballgame into the bottom of the sixth inning, but the Foresters promptly responded. Ryan Black reached on a base-loaded error with no outs to knock in the first Foresters run of the inning. Two outs later, Garza-Gongora picked up his second and third RBIs of the game with a bases loaded single to right-field.
Samuel Garewal got the starting nod on the bump for the Foresters, and his three scoreless innings were enough to earn him tonight’s win. Hunter Watkins succeeded Garewal with another two scoreless innings. The only run the Foresters surrendered came during Josh Hyneman’s 1 ⅔ innings pitched. Gabe Arteaga and Sean Youngerman would close out the game on the mound for the Foresters, pitching ⅔ and 1 ⅔ innings respectively.
The Foresters travel to San Luis Obispo tomorrow for a rematch against the Blues, with the first pitch scheduled for 2:00 p.m. at Sinsheimer Park.