By Aidan O’Neill
The Foresters won a rollercoaster of a baseball game on Saturday afternoon at Eddie Matthews Field, 8-7, and added to their lead in the CCL South.
It started with the brilliance of Ty Baker, a man who has been out of relief all season long but got the start today in a “bullpen game”. Baker twirled 4 innings with 9 K’s, only allowing 2 earned runs while leaning on a well-located fastball and a filthy slider.
“Fastball today felt buttery…once I felt like they knew a fastball was coming, I started spinning it and that worked out well too”.
Each day is a new day, but one thing that remains constant is the Foresters striking early. In the first inning, Jack Holman kept on swinging it with an RBI Double, followed by a Nick Oakley RBI Single. The table setters, Kaden Petersen and Jack Bollengier, got on base immediately and put the Riptide in a stressful situation. The Foresters led 3-0.
The Riptide began to claw back with a two-run homer from their star OF, Ace Reese, clobbering one to right field over the wall in the fourth inning. Later, Orange County added on with a three-run fifth inning, giving the Riptide a 5-3 lead entering the bottom half of the fifth.
Crooked numbers have characterized the Foresters season, and the bottom half of the fifth was a prime example. All with two outs, Jonah Sebring, Jack Holman, TJ Pompey, and Nick Oakley collected 5 RBI combined while crushing pitches to all fields. Santa Barbara then led 8-5.
“Just letting the ball travel…staying through the middle,” said Oakley when discussing the teams’ approach.
The offense went quiet during the latter innings for Santa Barbara, and they leaned on their pitching, in particular Will Rogers, the swiss army knife for the ’Sters, known as “Mr Clutch” to many. The clutch gene held strong once again, entering the 7th inning while inheriting a bases loaded jam. Rogers was able to limit the damage, only allowing one run on a sacrifice fly to left field.
The Foresters’ 8-6 lead stayed the same until the last pitch was thrown, courtesy of Rogers’ three innings in relief with 3 K’s.
Santa Barbara finishes out the homestand tomorrow against the Ventura Pirates, seeking perfection to end the homestand 4-0.
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First pitch on Sunday afternoon is at 2 pm.
