By Jim Buckley: Nothing like home cooking. After two road losses by the Foresters, a happy home crowd saw Santa Barbara return to form, knocking off the Conejo Oaks 6-2 to start a four-game homestand. Christian Delashmit led the way on the mound with six innings of one-run ball while DH Stephen Zobac had a pair of hits and RBI.
“We got an outstanding performance from Delly, he was getting ahead of batters, strike one on a majority of them,” said manager Bill Pintard. “He went six and could have gone even further.”
Pintard was also pleased with the other half of the starting battery. “It was the first time we saw Ryan Wrobleski behind the plate, too, and our team chemistry showed up well there. Dylan Leach gave Ryan a great workup on Christian, based on his previous outings. It worked out really well.” Brandon Beckel followed Delashmit and then Gabe Starks threw a two-inning save.
While Delashmit was chopping down the Oaks, Zobac opened the scoring in the first with his first home run of the summer, a line shot over the right field wall. He was in the middle of the scoring in the third inning as well, knocking a double that scored Kendall Pettis, who had singled. Nate Rombach then hit a sacrifice fly to score Andrew Kachel, who had walked. Tyler Casagrande’s single sent Zobac home with the third run of the inning to make it 4-1.
Santa Barbara added a pair in the eighth on a mighty homer to left by Tanner O’Tremba, an at-bat Pintard was not sure he would see. “What I thought was really exciting was watching O’Tremba get a chance. We thought he wouldn’t make it up there, but Nate Rombach got a big two-out hit and O’Tremba got his hacks. Overall, it was a good result for us after struggling the past two nights,” added Pintard.
The Foresters welcome the San Francisco Seals for two games, Friday and Saturday at 6 pm before a 2 pm game on Sunday, the Fourth of July at 2 pm. All the games will be at Pershing Park so make your plans to join the team for all the action.
