By Jalen Kang
Cody Howard turned in his best performance of the summer in his fifth and final start with the ’Sters, tossing 7.0 innings of one-run ball on Friday evening. His outing propelled the Foresters to a 12-1 win over CCL North opponent Menlo Park Legends.
Howard left the gates running and never let up, bringing a fast tempo to the mound while picking up 2 K’s in the opening inning.
“We’ve been working in the pen with Coach Kramer on offspeeds and trying to just get early outs and ahead in counts. My job was to go out and be long today and now we have our whole pen ready [for the weekend],” said Howard.
Howard took a no-hitter into the fifth inning, fanning five Legends (10-16 CCL) hitters. He finished with a final line of 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 BB, 1 ER, and 5 K’s.
The ’Sters (20-8, 17-8 CCL) scored four runs in the second inning and kept that number on the scoreboard for most of the game. The first four ’Sters batters reached and scored in the inning to start the party. Drew Markle had an RBI single, Ryan Tayman drove in two more with a double, and Kaden Peterson had an RBI double of his own to make it 4-0 ’Sters.
The Legends (10-16 CCL) got on the board to cut their deficit to three runs in the sixth inning, but a huge eighth inning for the ’Sters put the game out of reach.
A whopping nine straight free passes from the Legends’ pitching gifted the ’Sters five runs to start the eighth. Then, Daniel Patterson put the finishing touches on his 3-3 day with a two-run double to cap off a seven-spot in the inning.
With a 12-1 lead, Jackson Cloud had no pressure going after hitters in the ninth inning, closing out the contest to send the ’Sters into the weekend with back-to-back wins.
The ’Sters get their last crack at the OC Riptide, who lead the season series 2-0, tomorrow, Saturday, July 13 at Eddie Mathews Field in a statement game. Come see your ’Sters as the season wraps up; first pitch is at 4:30 p.m. or follow along on our live YouTube broadcast, https://www.youtube.com/@SantaBarbaraForesters19.