The largest crowd of the summer thus far descended on Pershing Park, and the Foresters delivered in the clutch.
Greg Pace launched a three-run homer and the Foresters overcame an early 3-0 deficit to defeat the visiting OC Riptide 4-3 on Thursday night in a battle of the top two teams in the CCL.
“He came through. He’s been working hard on improving his hitting,” said Foresters head coach Bill Pintard of Pace. “He has a tremendous amount of tools he just has to get his hitting going and tonight that home run really gave him a lot of confidence. It was a big boost for us. We don’t win that game without that hit.”
Zane Petty got the start for Santa Barbara and ran into trouble in the top of the first inning. Riptide leadoff hitter Cooper Dulich was hit by a pitch. The next three batters Colby Canales, Bryce Blaser and Cary Arbolida all singled.
Dulich scored on Blaser’s single to center field, Arbolida scored on Canales’s infield single and Blaser came home on a groundout by Ethan Felix for the first out of the inning, giving the Riptide a 3-0 lead.
Petty escaped the jam by striking out the next two batters, Connor Clift and Daniel Garate.
After being retired in order in the bottom of the first inning, the Foresters’ bats got going in the bottom of the second inning. Will Rogers led off the inning with a single to right field and Rocco Garza Gongora followed with a one-out single to left field.
With two outs and runners on second and third, Pace fell behind in the count before launching a three-run homer that evened the score at three apiece.
“It was just a two-strike approach. I knew we had traffic on the basepaths and I had to get the job done,” Pace said. “Knowing I’m behind in the count, I stepped out and reset. With two strikes, the at-bat isn’t over.”
Gianni Horvat kept the rally going with a single to left field and Daniel Patterson followed with a single to center field that scored Horvat and put the Foresters ahead 4-3.
Both pitching staffs dominated for the rest of the ball game. Petty settled in and finished with nine strikeouts in his five innings on the mound. He came back out for the top of the sixth inning, but was replaced by Westmont’s Zachary Yates after walking the first batter of the inning.
Yates pitched three innings of no-hit ball before being replaced by his Westmont teammate Sean Youngerman for the top of the ninth inning.
With the Foresters clinging to a 4-3 lead, the first Riptide batter in the top of the ninth inning, Garate ripped a lined drive into the right-center-field gap, but Max Belyeu made the play of the game with perfect throw to second base to put out Garate, who was trying to extend the hit to a double.
“It was a lined drive in the gap, so I figured he was going to be aggressive in a one-run game,” Belyeu said. “I just told myself, ‘Be smooth getting it out of the glove and let it rip to second base.’”
After the next batter, Patrick Hackworth, walked, Youngerman induced Brandon Burckel into a game-ending double play. The victory extended the Foresters’ winning streak to nine games.
The Foresters will host the Arroyo Seco Saints today beginning at 6 p.m. at Pershing Park.