The scoreboard and public address system went out during the Santa Barbara Foresters’ season opener, but the baseball team did its job and beat the San Luis Obispo Blues, 6-1, on Saturday before a nice crowd at Pershing Park.
Shortstop Ryan Black of Texas Arlington had two hits and two RBIs and first baseman Rocco Garza-Gongora of Oklahoma drove in three runs to pace the offense for the 10-time NBC World Series champions. They unveiled the banner of their third-straight title before the game.
Left-hander Sam Garewal of San Diego and Northwestern University got the season-opening start for the Foresters and pitched well. He gave up two hits, walked two and struck out four in three scoreless innings.
Hunter Watkins of Simi Valley and Grand Canyon University replaced Garewal and allowed two hits and no runs in two innings of work.
The Blues scored their lone run off No. 3 pitcher Josh Hyneman (Arkansas) in the sixth inning without getting a hit. Jeriah Lewis was hit by pitch to lead off the inning, stole second and third and scored on a wild pitch to make a 3-1 game.
The Foresters capitalized on the wildness of San Luis Obispo reliever Aaron Moreno and an error to score three runs in the sixth. Gianni Horvat (UNLV) was hit by a pitch to start the inning and Black and Greg Pace (Michigan) drew one-out walks to load the bases. An error on Arizona State’s Will Rogers’ grounder to second allowed Horvat to score and Garza-Gongora followed with a single to left-center field to drive in Black and Pace for a 6-1 lead.
Hyneman walked two in the seventh before the Foresters brought in Gabe Arteaga of Westmont’s NAIA World Series championship team. He induced a fly-out to left field to end the inning.
Arteaga ran into trouble in the eighth as he walked two batters with one out. Sean Youngerman, another pitcher off Westmont’s championship team, entered the game and walked the first batter he faced before getting a foul out to the third baseman and a fly-out to left field to escape unscathed.
Youngerman gave up lead-off single to Burns to start the ninth and then struck out the next three Blues to wrap up the victory.
The Foresters struck early as third baseman Daniel Patterson of Westmont greeted San Luis Obispo starter and future Cal Bear Lucas Alaniz of San Mateo College with a single. He then stole second on the first pitch to No. 2 hitter Black and scored on a single by the Texas-Arlington all-conference honoree.
After Black was caught attempting to steal second, Pace drew a walk and went to third on a single by Rogers. Garza-Gongora drove in Pace on a fielder’s choice grounder to second base for a 2-0 lead.
In the second, Black picked up his second RBI hit after singles by SBCC’s PK Walsh and Patterson.
The Foresters collected eight hits and the Blues had five hits and nine walks, with seven coming in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.
The two teams play again on Sunday at Sinsheimer Park in San Luis Obispo.