WICHITA, Kan. —Four players with two hits, another errorless game, and pitching that has now given up only two runs in three games. Add it up and the Santa Barbara Foresters are now a perfect 3-0 at the National Baseball Congress World Series.
The ’Sters beat the Gameday Saints, 8-1, to win their pool and now advance to a quarterfinal knockout game on Thursday (game time TBD).
The two-hit quartet included third baseman Nick Bellafronto, center fielder Christian Franklin, right fielder Blake Hall, and catcher Zach Presno.
“Four guys with two hits is great, plus we had great situational hitting,” said manager Bill Pintard, who noted that designated hitter Connor McKenna had two RBI without a hit.”
A thunderstorm warning delayed the start of the game, but once things were underway, Santa Barbara got on the board first when Franklin singled to left to drive in Bellafronto, who had doubled with one out. Then Hall bounced a seeing-eye single through the left side to score Franklin, who had stolen second.
Starting pitcher Brooks Fuller and the usual parade of 90-mph-throwing bullpen arms foiled the Saints throughout. The Santa Barbara defense also chimed in early and often as well. In the second, Presno picked off a runner on third; he later cut down a would-be basestealer. Shortstoper Tevin Tucker made a diving stop of a hard grounder up the middle and recovered in time to record the out.
The offense did its job, too. In the third, the Foresters put runners on the corners with one out. After Presno reached on a error by the center fielder, Hall moved him along with a single through the right side. A double by first baseman Jacob Katzfey scored Presno. On the play, an error by the right fielder on the relay let Hall come across to make it 4-0. A sac fly to center by Connor McKenna scored the Foresters fifth run, Katzfey having reached third on the errors.
Franklin was plunked with a pitch to open the Foresters fifth. After a double by Presno, Hall rolled a ball to short. The throw home to try get Franklin was missed and he scored to make it 6-1, the Saints having gotten a single run in the fourth.
“I’m having a lot of fun,” said Franklin. “The team is playing really well and the bats are coming around. Our pitching has been great. It’s all coming together now.”
The fun continued in the inning when McKenna grounded out to third with the bases loaded to score Presno for the second time. Up 7-1, the Foresters made it the final score of 8-1 on a sac fly to right by Tucker.
Fuller continued a solid run of starts by the ’Sters, following Game 1 and 2 wins by Ryan Bergert and Luke Taggart. Fuller scattered three hits and allowed only one run while striking out five. Conner Woods came in with two men on and got the ’Sters out of the, um . . . woods with a strikeout of Norwood. Jacob Burton, Cole Quintanilla, Caden Monke, and Nico O’Donnell threw nearly perfect shutout relief.
Stay tuned here for updates on the game time for Thursday’s knockout round game.