By Tony Villalpando
It was a wild one at Pershing on Saturday night as the Foresters slugged their way to a 12-6 victory in a back and forth hitting contest. The Barons and Foresters traded runs until the 7th inning when the Barons took the lead in the top of the inning only to cough it up in a sloppy bottom of the inning. The Barons in that inning allowed 3 walks and 2 wild pitches that allowed key runs to cross the plate. Coach Pintard then handed the ball over to Hunter Breault to shut the door once and for all.
After a tough start to the game, Luke Taggart did a nice job settling in. He only allowed one more run the rest of the way while striking out 8 batters in his 5 innings of work.
The Forester’s big night at the plate was headlined by the duo of Eric Kennedy and Christian Franklin. The pair of ’Sters had 3 homers, 6 hits, and 9 RBI’s between them. Kennedy had 2 home runs and Franklin finished a double shy of the cycle.
Kennedy talked after the game about his approach which helped with his success at the dish, “I kept the same approach just see the ball hit the ball and it was nice that I got them on the barrel and both of them went out… just nice for the team overall to get back in our stride cause we know how explosive of an offense we can be.”
Elijah Trest ended up earning the win for the ’Sters for his work in the 7th inning. Trest allowed 1 hit and an unearned run with 2 strikeouts. Hunter Breault pitched the final 2 innings and earned the save. Breault allowed no hits, walked 1, and struck out 4 of the 7 batters he faced.
In speaking of what had changed from the previous night in which they only managed 2 hits, coach Pintard said, “Last night being a non-league game and coming off a really good game against SLO, we came back not ready to play in 4th gear but we learned a valuable lesson that you always have to be ready to play and we did today.”
He praised the overall great team win saying, “We were good in every facet of the game tonight. We played good defense, made good plays, had 3 homers… just all around good bounce back game for the team.”
The Foresters head out to play the Barons again on Sunday but at their place. Game time will be at 1pm as the Foresters look to keep things rolling.
