The Santa Barbara Foresters began their quest for an NBC World Series title with an 8-0 mercy-rule win over the Great Bend Bat Cats on Friday at Eck Stadium in Wichita, Kansas.
The Foresters will continue pool play on Saturday at 10 p.m. PST against the BTL Hornets, with the game streamed on the NBC World Series YouTube channel.
After Santa Barbara starter Noah Waldeck (Mercer) worked around a leadoff single for a scoreless top of the first, the Forester bats wasted no time jumping out in front in the bottom half.
Carter Rutenbar (Arkansas) led things off with a single and reached second on an error. Sawyer Farr (Texas A&M) then grounded out to advance Rutenbar to third, and Chris Newstrom (UCSB) followed that up with an RBI single through the right side to go up 1-0.
The second inning then went scoreless, but the Foresters bounced back by doubling their lead in the bottom of the second when Brady Janusek (Baylor) led off with a triple and Rutenbar singled him home to make it a 2-0 advantage.
Meanwhile, Waldeck was in cruise control on the bump for the Foresters. The right-hander fired five scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and two walks while striking out five along the way.
He then handed the ball over to newly-acquired Daniel McAuliff (Pittsburgh), who kept the trend of clean innings going with a scoreless sixth before the Santa Barbara offense pulled away for good.
The Foresters caught fire in the bottom of the sixth with a five-run rally that featured four singles, three walks, a hit by pitch and a sacrifice fly to expand the lead to 7-0.
In the big inning, Addison Klepsch (UC San Diego), Kurt Ippolito (Baylor) and Zane Becker (Texas A&M) all supplied RBI singles, Janusek walked with the bases loaded and Rutenbar drove in a run on a sacrifice fly to account for the scoring.
McAuliff then went back out and tossed a scoreless seventh, setting the stage for Donovan Lasalle (Louisiana) to lead off the bottom half with a solo homer over the center-field wall. His long ball brought the lead to eight runs and triggered the mercy rule, giving the ‘Sters the win.
It was an all-around effort from the Forester offense, as all 10 batters who stepped to the plate reached base safely and the team totaled 10 hits on the day.
