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Santa Barbara Foresters

Foresters split doubleheader with Brewers

Player pitching

Bouncing back from their first loss of the season Tuesday night, the Santa Barbara Foresters took the first game of Wednesday’s doubleheader 5-3 against the LA Brewers. However, the nightcap of the doubleheader failed to produce a similar result and mirrored the Tuesday night loss as the Foresters fell 3-1.

The split of the doubleheader lost the series for the Foresters, who now sit 9-2 overall and 2-2 in California Collegiate League play. Again the pitching kept them close, but a sputtering offense let them down in the second game.

Riley Ferrell started his first game of the season in second game of the day, previously throwing two innings in relief against the Neptune Beach Pearl on June 7. Ferrell’s results were mixed, as he left with the bases loaded and no outs in the fourth inning, leading 1-0 thanks to a Ryan O’Hearn RBI groundout in the first inning.

Andrew Godail, who just arrived Tuesday from Sam Houston State, entered and worked of the inning by forcing a double play and groundout. However, the tying run scored on the double play.

Godail worked himself into trouble from there, as he walked the first two batters in the fifth and threw a wild pitch with men on second and third and two outs as the score became 2-1 in favor of the Brewers. He also walked the first two men in the sixth inning before retiring the next three to work out of the inning.

The Foresters had chances in the eighth and ninth, but failed to come up with any runs. Michael Deceglie, catching his third game in two days, walked to leadoff the inning and moved to second on a Joey Swanner sacrifice. Steven Reveles walked to put men on first and second with one out, but Colt Atwood struck out and Garrett Mattlage flied out to end the threat.

After Jace James gave up a solo shot to the first batter he faced, Brewer shortstop Matt Tietz, to make it 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth.

Now trailing by two, Ryan O’Hearn walked to lead off the ninth and two outs later Louie Lechich singled to put the tying run on base. With two outs and the bases loaded, Deceglie was called out on strikes to end the game.

In the opener, the Foresters sent Austen Williams to the mound and he too left in a tough spot. After pitching through four innings and allowing one run, Williams found himself with men on second and third with one out. An RBI groundout and a two-out RBI single drew the score to 4-3, and Williams was pulled after walking another.

His Texas State teammate, Hunter Lemke entered for his first appearance of the 2013 season. In his one and a third innings of work, Lemke struck out all four batters he faced.

The Foresters had taken an early lead thanks to a solo home run well over the right field fence for Ryan O’Hearn and a man scoring after Deceglie grounded into a double play with no outs in the second. The Foresters added two more in the fifth as Atwood, O’Hearn’s Sam Houston State teammate, hit a two-run home run with two outs in the inning.

As the game was scheduled for only seven, Patrick Weigel entered in the bottom of the seventh to close for the Foresters after Atwood added an insurance run in the top half with an RBI groundout.

Weigel threw just twelve pitches to wrap up the game, striking out one and continuing to hold a perfect ERA of 0.00 through 10 innings this season.

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