The Santa Barbara Foresters couldn’t wake up their bats in a 5-1 loss to the OC Riptide on Sunday at Great Park in Irvine.
The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Foresters, who remain atop the California Collegiate League with a record of 18-7, while the Riptide are now just 2.5 games back at 16-10.
After a scoreless top half of the first from Santa Barbara, the Riptide exploded out of the gate with three runs courtesy of a bases-loaded double by Patrick Hackworth of UC San Diego.
Hackworth’s big swing would prove to be the only offense for the first five innings, as both pitching staffs took over.
Santa Barbara got its lone run in the top of the sixth thanks to an RBI single from Eamonn Lance that drove home Jalin Flores, cutting into the lead at 3-1.
However, the Riptide got that run right back in the bottom of the sixth as an RBI sacrifice fly brought the lead back up to three at 4-1.
From there, the Orange County pitching staff shut down the Forester offense, striking out a total of 13 batters with starter Tyler Valdez piling up nine in his six innings of work.
The Riptide tacked on one more insurance run in the bottom of the eighth with an RBI single, capping the scoring off at 5-1.
The Foresters still hold the season series over the second-place Riptide three games to one, but there is one more three-game set to be played between the two squads from July 21-23.
For its next matchup, Santa Barbara will stay on the road to take on the Arroyo Seco Saints (14-12) on Tuesday at 6:05 p.m. at Jackie Robinson Field.
