By Jim Buckley
For the second time in a week, catcher David Clawson supplied a big blow in a Foresters win. On Friday, his grand slam ignited a big victory over Southern Nevada. On Tuesday at Compton, his third-inning, bases-clearing double provided all the runs his pitching staff needed. Santa Barbara swept the season series from the Academy Barons with a 4-0 win.
Clawson also scored the Foresters’ fourth run on a sacrifice fly by Joey Fiske in the fifth. When he wasn’t generating offense, Clawson was shepherding the Foresters pitching staff to its second shutout of the season. Ty Wiest got the start and went 5.3 scoreless innings. Corey Herndon, Colton Follett, and Garrett Gayle continued the string of zeroes in relief. Together, they struck out 12 Barons, continuing an early-season power-pitching trend. They also allowed only two hits.
That type of pitching plays right into manager Bill Pintard’s philosophy. “We want to pound the zone with fastballs,” he said. “Having a good strikeout to walk ratio is key. We’re 76 strikeouts to 13 walks in the past five games. We had a reliever come in and walk people and we took him out.”
The ballclub has six games in five days starting Wednesday. Pintard knows it will be tough, but expects his team to do its job. “Winning is a mentality. We are expecting to win and knowing the winning tradition that the Sters have helps us keep rolling. We don’t try to be who we’re not. If we play our game, we will slow the game down and be successful.”
Santa Barbara heads to Ventura on Wednesday to take on the Halos. That will be a 5 pm start at Ventura College, and can be heard on AM 1290.
