By Cole Walker
As it has been known, the Blues and Foresters are less than friendly, especially in late season critical contests, and Thursday’s matchup was no different with multiple instances requiring umpire intervention. This tension helped to fuel a relentless rivalry that ended with the Foresters falling 8-2 to their plucky neighbors to the North Thursday Evening.
The five fielding errors by the ‘Sters made a win difficult to come by as the Blues hopped out to an early lead and maintained their position throughout the contest. The Blues were able to capitalize off Santa Barbara’s poor defensive showing with 4 of their runs coming in conjunction with a Santa Barbara error, with the final dagger coming in the top of then ninth, following a big bases clearing double to left.
Santa Barbara hitters Jack Holman, who finished the day 3-4 with an RBI from the left side of the plate, and first baseman Johnny Rodriguez, who helped to add two big hits and an extra RBI to the scoreboard, were bright spots for a fairly stagnate Forester’s offense.
The Foresters hope to bounce back as they travel north to San Luis Obispo tomorrow evening as the play the second game in a back-to-back series against the Blues. Listen to the game live on the Santa Barbara Foresters YouTube channel. First pitch is scheduled for 6:00pm local time.
