By Jim Buckley (photo by Lexi Brintle) A pair of late rallies by the Foresters made things exciting, but Santa Barbara could not dig out of an early hole, and fell to the San Luis Blues 7-5 on the road. Even with the loss, the Foresters remain in first place in the CCL North at 10-3.
In the first inning, the Blues took a page from the Foresters’ playbook in the first, scoring four runs with two outs. San Luis racked up four hits, a walk, and a hit by pitch in the frame. They added two more in the second to take a commanding 6-0 lead.
After the Blues added another in the sixth, the Foresters bats woke up in the seventh. Easton Moomau walked and Brenton Clark reached on an error. Cole Chamberlain’s single scored Moomau with the first run. A wild pitch brought Clark home, and Sawyer Farr then drove home Chamberlain to make it 7-3.
Though the Foresters didn’t get their first hit until the sixth inning, they had chances, as Blues pitchers wound up walking 12 and hitting three batters. Santa Barbara also left 15 runners on base, including two on in the eighth and ninth.
The Foresters did make it exciting in the ninth. They got the first two batters on and then loaded the bases with one out. Chamberlain scored on a sac fly by Coleman Ryan, making his Foresters debut. Addison Klepsch singled to score Easton Rulli, who had walked. But the game-tying hit was not to be found.
The two rivals face off again in San Luis Obispo on Wednesday. Listen to all the action on Foresters YouTube (link on our home page), starting at 6 pm.
